| Main Entry: |
cleverness
|
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | brightness, ingenuity |
| Synonyms: | ability, adroitness, astuteness, brains, calculation, canniness, dexterity, discernment, flair, gift, gumption, intelligence, quick wit, quickness, resourcefulness, sagacity, sense, sharpness, shrewdness, skill, smartness, talent, wisdom, wit |
| Antonyms: | foolishness, ignorance, naievety, senselessness, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | acumen |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ability to understand and reason |
| Synonyms: | acuity, acuteness, astuteness, awareness, brains, brilliance, cleverness, comprehension, cunning, discernment, discrimination, farsightedness, good taste, grasp, guile, ingenuity, insight, intellect, intelligence, intuition, judgment, keenness, perception, percipience, perspicacity, perspicuity, refinement, sagacity, sensitivity, sharpness, shrewdness, smartness, smarts, understanding, vision, wisdom, wit |
| Notes: | acumen suggests that keenness relates to a person's mind, whereas acuity suggests that it relates to a person's performance; acumen is something that a person has, whereas acuity is something that a person displays |
| Antonyms: | denseness, ignorance, inability, ineptness, obtuseness, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | agility |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | physical or mental nimbleness, deftness |
| Synonyms: | activity, acuteness, adroitness, alacrity, alertness, briskness, celerity, cleverness, dexterity, dispatch, expedition, fleetness, friskiness, litheness, liveliness, promptitude, promptness, quickness, quickwittedness, sharpness, sprightliness, spryness, suppleness, swiftness |
| Antonyms: | clumsiness, stiffness |
| Main Entry: | aptitude |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | quickness at learning |
| Synonyms: | ability, capability, capacity, cleverness, competence, faculty, flair, gift, giftedness, intelligence, knack, proficiency, savvy, smarts, stuff*, talent, what it takes |
| Notes: | aptitude and attitude derive from Latin aptitudo 'fitness,' the first through French, the second through a French borrowing of Italian attitudine |
| Antonyms: | incapacity, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | capacity |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ability; competency |
| Synonyms: | adequacy, aptitude, aptness, bent, brains, caliber, capability, cleverness, compass, competence, efficiency, facility, faculty, forte, genius, gift, inclination, intelligence, knack, might, power, qualification, readiness, skill, stature, strength, talent, the goods, up to it, what it takes |
| Notes: | applied to a person, ability and capacity mean about the same thing but are grammatically different: an ability to do something, a capacity for doing something; ability is qualitative while capacity is quantitative capacity refers to a general ability to comprehend an issue or perform a task; capability implies a reference to one of a set of such abilities |
| Antonyms: | impotence, inability, incompetence |
| Main Entry: | craft |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | expertise, skill |
| Synonyms: | ability, adeptness, adroitness, aptitude, art, artistry, cleverness, competence, cunning, dexterity, expertness, ingenuity, knack, know-how, proficiency, technique |
| Main Entry: | creativity |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | artistry |
| Synonyms: | cleverness, genius, imagination, imaginativeness, ingenuity, inspiration, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, talent, vision |
| Main Entry: | dexterity |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | aptitude, ability |
| Synonyms: | address, adroitness, aptness, art, artistry, cleverness, craft, cunning, deftness, effortlessness, expertise, expertness, facility, finesse, handiness, ingenuity, knack, know-how, mastery, neatness, nimbleness, proficiency, readiness, skill, skillfulness, smoothness, tact, touch |
| Antonyms: | awkwardness, clumsiness, inability, ineptness |
| Main Entry: | ease |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | facility, freedom |
| Synonyms: | adroitness, affability, aplomb, breeze, child's play, cinch, cleverness, composure, dexterity, dispatch, duck soup, easygoingness, efficiency, effortlessness, expertise, expertness, familiarity, flexibility, fluency, informality, insouciance, knack, liberty, naturalness, nonchalance, poise, pushover, quickness, readiness, relaxedness, setup, simplicity, skillfulness, smooth sailing, smoothness, snap, unaffectedness, unconstraint, unreservedness |
| Antonyms: | difficulty, effort, inhibition, perplexity, restriction |