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Subtile vs. Subtle — What's the Difference?

Subtile vs. Subtle — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Subtile and Subtle

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Subtile

Subtle.

Subtle

(especially of a change or distinction) so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyse or describe
His language expresses rich and subtle meanings

Subtile

Obsolete form of subtle

Subtle

Making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something
He tried a more subtle approach

Subtile

Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium.
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Subtle

Crafty; cunning
The subtle fiend dissembled

Subtile

Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven.
More subtile web Arachne can not spin.
I do distinguish plainEach subtile line of her immortal face.

Subtle

So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe; elusive
A subtle smile.

Subtile

Acute; piercing; searching.
The slow disease and subtile pain.

Subtle

Difficult to understand; abstruse
An argument whose subtle point was lost on her opponent.

Subtile

Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle.
The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contrary, is acute, profound, and sensual, but not subtile; hence what they think to be humorous, is merely witty.
The subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson's.

Subtle

Able to make fine distinctions
A subtle mind.

Subtile

Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme.

Subtle

Operating in a hidden, usually injurious way; insidious
A subtle poison.

Subtle

Characterized by skill or ingenuity; clever.

Subtle

Crafty or sly; devious.

Subtle

Hard to grasp; not obvious or easily understood.

Subtle

Barely noticeable, not obvious, indistinct.
The difference is subtle, but you can hear it if you listen carefully.

Subtle

(of a thing) Cleverly contrived.

Subtle

(of a person or animal) Cunning, skillful.

Subtle

Insidious.

Subtle

Tenuous; rarefied; of low density or thin consistency.

Subtle

(obsolete) Refined; exquisite.

Subtle

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

Subtle

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

Subtle

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.
Things remote from use, obscure and subtle.

Subtle

Smooth and deceptive.
Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground [bowling ground].

Subtle

Be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind;
His whole attitude had undergone a subtle change
A subtle difference
That elusive thing the soul

Subtle

Faint and difficult to analyze;
Subtle aromas

Subtle

Able to make fine distinctions;
A subtle mind

Subtle

Working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way;
Glaucoma is an insidious disease
A subtle poison

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