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Showing results for subtle. Search instead for subtri.
Definitions
Trivia Time
In calling one of his novels The Subtle Knife, what does Philip Pullman convey about the knife?

subtle

[suht-l] / ˈsʌt l /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Mr. Katz’s livelier, more conversational prose brings out its subtle and scathing comedy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

I would trade you a hundred Yosemite Valleys for the solitude and subtle beauty offered here at dusk, as the sun sets over the Glass Mountains and the sky turns mauve.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

Early pancreatic cancer typically produces few noticeable symptoms, and the changes it causes in pancreatic tissue can be too subtle to detect through standard medical imaging.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

It can sometimes take subtle forms, making it harder for business owners to detect.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

The sidewalk lights cast a subtle light in the darkness.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly

“The Whale” is subtler on stage than it is on screen; its metaphors work better in the theater’s buoyant atmosphere for which they were conceived.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

As particle accelerators became more powerful and detectors grew increasingly sensitive, researchers gained access to subtler physical processes.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 2, 2026

It remains to be seen whether “Kitchen Undercover” will rely on prosthetics, fake mustaches or merely the subtler costume of the unrecognized employee.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

“There is also a subtler danger,” he writes, of AI “reflecting and reinforcing the stereotypes or ideological bias of their designers and developers.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

That they marched heedlessly to tragedy is a subtler one.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Of all the American sports, baseball, though seeming the simplest, is, I believe, the subtlest.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

The group’s project, which is sponsored by the Colombian government, focuses on the subtlest, non-motor symptoms of the disease.

From New York Times ● May 23, 2023

"Blinks are one of the subtlest of human movements, so designing mechanisms that can mimic these movements require advanced technology, such as high-precision motors," Ms Kiilavuori explains.

From BBC ● May 4, 2023

“I’ll talk influences all day, because my influences only affect my music in the subtlest ways,” Wifigawd says.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2023

Tragedy turned him into one of the subtlest and sharpest satirists in American letters.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin


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