subtle
Example Sentences
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Women come from other groups, but in worlds where female mobility is a common pattern, from the great apes to human societies, interpreting this signal immediately becomes more subtle.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Inside, we perfected our power snap—the subtle whipping motion at the end of the cast—with severed rod handles, looking more like budding wizards than fishermen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Cosmetic injectables were once associated with wealthy, middle-aged clients seeking subtle anti-ageing treatments, but the industry has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
You don’t keep playing R.E.M. on the soundtrack if you want to be subtle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
And now a subtle change was coming over the two hundred and fifty watching children in the audience.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
Critics, including the leadership of SAG-AFTRA, counter that the displacement is already at hand in subtler ways, with background roles and commercials increasingly filled by digital doubles rather than human performers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
It’s a subtler way to exert leverage over the world’s most important oil chokepoint, analysts at J.P.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
What draws him most is subtler than that.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026
Bad Bunny’s signifiers were subtler, although some may not have contained the meaning people read into them.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2026
A subtler expression of this geographically varying ease of spread is the phenomenon termed preemptive domestication.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The film won’t win any prizes for the subtlest metaphor of the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
Throughout the history of American music, blues, jazz and soul singers have used the jazzy quaver for the subtlest nuances of emotion: for tension, playfulness, defiance, flirtatiousness, ache or just blithe ornamentation.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2024
In his subtlest, most challenging and finest performance since his Oscar-nominated double role in “Adaptation.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2024
Through the warm friendship of Tara and Karan, the series also imparts one of its subtlest takes on relationships.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2023
Jabir’s fingers twitched, the subtlest of hand commands.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Vocabulary lists containing subtle
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Latin Root "sub" Words
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The Silent Treatment: Words Plagued by Silent Letters
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