"cunning" meaning in English

See cunning in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈkʌnɪŋ/ Audio: en-us-cunning.ogg [US] Forms: cunning [positive], more cunning [comparative], most cunning [superlative]
Head templates: {{adj|more=true}} [POS TABLE]
  1. Something that is cunning uses skills to trick or deceive others.
    Sense id: simple-cunning-en-adj-Oqo0nA3P

Noun

IPA: /ˈkʌnɪŋ/ Audio: en-us-cunning.ogg [US] Forms: cunning [singular], – [plural]
Head templates: {{noun4}} [POS TABLE]
  1. Cunning is the skill of being very clever, usually to trick or fool someone else.
    Sense id: simple-cunning-en-noun-NGSkHbCF
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cunning",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun4"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His new plan to attack the castle showed great cunning."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Cunning is the skill of being very clever, usually to trick or fool someone else."
      ],
      "id": "simple-cunning-en-noun-NGSkHbCF"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkʌnɪŋ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-cunning.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "singular-only"
  ],
  "word": "cunning"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cunning",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "more cunning",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most cunning",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "more": "true"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The cunning fox was able to climb over the fence into the hen house."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is cunning uses skills to trick or deceive others."
      ],
      "id": "simple-cunning-en-adj-Oqo0nA3P"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkʌnɪŋ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-cunning.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cunning"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cunning",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun4"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His new plan to attack the castle showed great cunning."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Cunning is the skill of being very clever, usually to trick or fool someone else."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkʌnɪŋ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-cunning.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "singular-only"
  ],
  "word": "cunning"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cunning",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "more cunning",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most cunning",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "more": "true"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The cunning fox was able to climb over the fence into the hen house."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is cunning uses skills to trick or deceive others."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkʌnɪŋ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-cunning.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cunning"
}

Download raw JSONL data for cunning meaning in English (1.1kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-21 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (87ad358 and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.