Elusive

//ɪˈl(j)uː.sɪv// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

    "The elusive criminal was arrested"

  2. 2
    Difficult to make precise.

    "A precise definition of diarrhea is elusive"

  3. 3
    Rarely seen.

    "While you're sniffing the trunks of the ponderosas to see if they're butterscotch, vanilla, strawberry, or the elusive chocolate variety, watch for Brown Creepers, an elusive variety of bird."

Adjective
  1. 1
    skillful at eluding capture wordnet
  2. 2
    making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe wordnet
  3. 3
    difficult to describe wordnet
  4. 4
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
artfulbafflingbafflingcageydeceptiveelusory

Example

More examples

"This species of deer is so elusive that only two have ever been photographed in the wild."

Etymology

From Latin elusus, past participle of eludo (“to parry a blow, to deceive”).

More for "elusive"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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