The spy was very furtive as he stole the keys from the guard.
Source: tatoeba (1503566)
Furtive
//ˈfɜːtɪv//
Synonyms for "furtive" (131 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (27)
Strong matches (39)
Related words (65)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
55 translations across 21 languages.
Arabic
4 entries- مَاكِر adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- مَخْفِيّ adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- مُخْتَلَس adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- مُسْتَرَق adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Bulgarian
3 entries- потаен adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- прикрит adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- скрит adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Czech
4 entries- kradmý adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- kradmý adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- nenápadný adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- potutelný adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Dutch
4 entries- diefachtig adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- furtief adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- furtief adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- heimelijk adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
Finnish
4 entries- petollinen adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- salaa otettu adj (taken stealthily)
- vaivihkainen adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- vaivihkainen adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
French
2 entries- furtif adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- subreptice adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
German
4 entries- Tarn adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- geheim adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- heimlich adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- verstohlen adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
Greek
3 entries- κρυφός adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- λαθραίος adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- φευγαλέος adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
Italian
1 entries- furtivo adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Latin
2 entries- fūrtīvus adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- fūrtīvus adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Latvian
1 entries- zaglīgs adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Macedonian
2 entries- по́таен adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- скри́шен adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Māori
1 entries- whakamokeke adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Norwegian Bokmål
3 entries- forstjålen adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- hemmelighetsfull adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- stjålen adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
Plautdietsch
1 entries- heemlich adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Polish
4 entries- podstępny adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- potajemny adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- przebiegły adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- tajemny adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
Portuguese
2 entries- furtivo adj (of a thing: exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy)
- furtivo adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Russian
1 entries- скры́тный adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Spanish
2 entries- furtivo adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
- sigiloso adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Tagalog
1 entries- alimis adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Tajik
1 entries- ноаён adj (of a person or animal: sly, stealthy)
Sample sentences
15 total sentences available.
They cast furtive glances at one another.
Source: tatoeba (1640142)
He walked very slowly and circumspectly, and there was something indescribably guilty and furtive in his whole appearance.
Source: tatoeba (6617190)
A furtive tear welled up in her eyes, leaving me emotional.
Source: tatoeba (13577054)
Showing 4 of 15 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.