Cleverly

//ˈklɛvəli// adv, name

adv, name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Wittily; in a tricky manner.

    "He joked cleverly with each guest."

  2. 2
    Intelligently directed to a purpose.

    "Cleverly, he found ways of ingratiating himself with all the important guests."

  3. 3
    Completely, fully. US, dialectal

    "“I ain't a-goin' ter let leetle Mose be kep' up hyar till midnight a-waitin' for you-uns ter milk the cow. It's cleverly dark now.”"

Adverb
  1. 1
    in a clever manner wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Old English.

Synonyms

All synonyms
intelligentlyablycapablycompetentlydeftlydiscreetly

Example

More examples

"Near the bed, the composite aluminium robot, with a human shape and with a rubber skin, cleverly painted to resemble human skin, glued to its body, was standing naked."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From clever + -ly.

Etymology 2

Perhaps a variant of Cleveley, through an irregular development, or a possibly a habitational surname from a lost or unidentified place in Hampshire, from Old English clǣfre (“clover”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”) and thus equivalent to clover + -ley (“lea”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.