cleverness

/ˈklɛvərnɪs/
/ˈklɛvənɪs/
IPA guide

Other forms: clevernesses

Cleverness is the quality someone has when they're funny and smart or inventive. If you're wise and witty, your cleverness is likely to make school a breeze.

It takes cleverness to solve a tricky logic problem, and it takes a slightly different kind of cleverness to tell a joke really well or come up with a funny response. When a person is clever, they're either very smart and quick-thinking, or they're witty. The meaning of cleverness has evolved over time, including meaning "attractiveness" and "agreeableness" in some dialects.

Definitions of cleverness
  1. noun
    intelligence as manifested in being quick and witty
    synonyms: brightness, smartness
    see moresee less
    type of:
    intelligence
    the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience
  2. noun
    the power of creative imagination
    synonyms: ingeniousness, ingenuity, inventiveness
    see moresee less
    types:
    imagination, resource, resourcefulness
    the ability to deal resourcefully with unusual problems
    armory, armoury, inventory
    a collection of resources
    type of:
    creative thinking, creativeness, creativity
    the ability to create
  3. noun
    the property of being ingenious
    “the cleverness of its design”
    synonyms: ingeniousness, ingenuity
    see moresee less
    type of:
    high quality, superiority
    the quality of being superior
Cite this entry
Style:
MLA
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago

DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘cleverness'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of gold-punch.com or its editors. Send us feedback
Word Family

Vocabulary lists containing cleverness

"The Experiment" and "Superstition"

Edge: Level A, Volume 1, Unit 1, Cluster 1. Here are links to the other clusters within Unit 1: "The Experiment" and "Superstition", "Building Bridges" and "The Right Words at the Right Time", "The Open Window" and "One in a Million"

view more about the vocabulary list
The Suffix -ness, Part 2

Learn this list of words with the suffix -ness meaning "the state of."

MORE VOCABULARY LISTS