Cunning vs. Subtle — What's the Difference?

Marked by or given to artful subtlety and deceptiveness.

(especially of a change or distinction) so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyse or describe

Executed with or exhibiting ingenuity.

Making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something

Delicately pleasing; pretty or cute

Crafty; cunning

Skill in deception; guile.

So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe; elusive

Skill or adeptness in execution or performance; dexterity.

Difficult to understand; abstruse

Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

Able to make fine distinctions

(obsolete) Skillful, artful.

Operating in a hidden, usually injurious way; insidious

(obsolete) Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

Characterized by skill or ingenuity; clever.

Cute, appealing.

Crafty or sly; devious.

Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.

Hard to grasp; not obvious or easily understood.

Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.

Barely noticeable, not obvious, indistinct.

The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.

(of a thing) Cleverly contrived.

The natural wit or instincts of an animal.

(of a person or animal) Cunning, skillful.

(obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

Insidious.

Knowing; skillful; dexterous.

Tenuous; rarefied; of low density or thin consistency.

Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work.

(obsolete) Refined; exquisite.

Crafty; sly; artful; designing; deceitful.

Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; - applied to persons; as, a subtle foe.

Pretty or pleasing; as, a cunning little boy.

Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.

Knowledge; art; skill; dexterity.

Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; - said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; - said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.

The faculty or act of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose; fraudulent skill or dexterity; deceit; craft.

Smooth and deceptive.

Shrewdness in deception;

Be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind;

Shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception

Faint and difficult to analyze;

Drafty artfulness (especially in deception)

Able to make fine distinctions;

Attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness;

Working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way;

Marked by skill in deception;

Showing inventiveness and skill;