# The word "clever" in UK vs US English **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 28, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407 "2012-12-28T18:33:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/41 "2012-12-30T18:36:23Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Hmm. How does “cunning” fit in? Cleverness and craftiness are mostly human traits. Cunning is more primal, and most often used to describe wild animals and politicians. It’s also more oppositional in nature, yet openly so. “I’m a lion. I’m hungry. You know I’m coming for you, and you’re preparing accordingly. I’ll still find a way to bring you down.” By contrast, a crafty person will try to catch people off-guard and ideally not even get caught. Incidentally, threads like this are a good example of why I don’t think that IQ is a very useful measurement. I prefer to think of intelligence as qualitative rather than quantitative. Clever and bright and witty and wise all mean different things, and the combination of adjectives used to describe someone communicate much more than IQ can. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/42 "2012-12-30T21:28:34Z")
I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/43 "2012-12-30T22:57:22Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. OK, Jerry. Why don’t you mosey along to the Coffee Shop and have some lunch! ---
**Author:** ![fortheloveoftheatre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc79bd/32.png) [@fortheloveoftheatre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortheloveoftheatre)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/44 "2015-06-04T08:13:13Z")
American here… I’ve been watching Doctor Who on Netflix as well, and I sort of took The Doctor’s use of the word ‘clever’ to mean ‘genius’. That’s how it seemed to me because The Doctor’s got that big giant Time Lord brain that can work a whole lot faster than a human brain and he is pretty much a genius… his IQ is probably off the charts (by earth standards at least). So I always thought ‘clever’ was The Doctor’s way of modestly (but still with a huge amount of ego) saying that he is a genius… As an American I’ve always thought of the word clever to mean smart at solving puzzles and riddles and mysteries (which is The Doctor)… Like, if somebody got 100% on a calculus test, I wouldn’t say “Oh wow, you’re really clever!” I would probably say something like “Wow, You must be really smart/genius/good with numbers, etc” but if somebody had solved some really complicated brain teaser type puzzle or riddle, then I might say that person was really clever… or I might use it sarcastically. Like… you lock your keys in the car and I might say “Well, that was clever!” I just finished watching the Doctor Who episode called Midnight and the scene where the passengers are asking who put The Doctor in charge and what makes him so special, The Doctor replies/yells “Because I’m Clever!” and the passengers react as though he just called all of them stupid/idiots. I think the young girl (assistant to the professor) had said something like “Well if you’re clever, what does that make us, stupid?” So the way they had all reacted made me think that if this was an American program it would have been as if The Doctor had shouted “Because I’m a Genius!” ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/45 "2015-06-04T10:57:09Z")
Australian here. I draw no different shade of meaning between smart, clever or intelligent and would use them all interchangeably. Crafty and cunning have a negative connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/46 "2015-06-04T11:15:42Z")
Aus here. “Clever” was the snide insult used by the Labor Party to describe John Howard, the Prime Minister that they opposed. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/47 "2015-06-04T11:24:54Z")
Another Aussie here. Apart from the obvious connotations of intelligence I think clever is intended to mean quick witted, inventive or creative. This is particularly obvious from its use in sporting contexts. Most sports fans would understand the nuance of what was being described if a commentator mentioned a “clever shot,” a “clever pass” or a “clever move.” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/48 "2015-06-04T21:23:38Z")
“Clever” is also commonly used (in US) to describe raccoons, crows, and lawyers. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > One boy found all five answers pretty quickly. That kid was smart. > A girl raised her hand. “Mr. Dorkness,” she said, “You didn’t tell us what number was in the thousands place. Couldn’t there be more answers?” That kid was clever. That’s a smart-ass. ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/49 "2015-06-04T21:37:07Z")
Isn’t there also the phrase “Too clever by half” ? ---
**Author:** ![Why\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Why\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_Child)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/50 "2015-06-04T22:16:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sylvia, 1982] … Well your nobody called today She hung up when I asked her name Well I wonder does she think she’s being clever (clever) … [/QUOTE] Great, now I have an earworm! Thanks, I’ll be singing that all day!! :rolleyes: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407/51 "2015-06-05T09:23:40Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > On a side note - does “smart” usually have the connotation of “smart-assed” or “cheeky” over there, instead of just “intelligent”? > [@SanVito](#): > > Nope. Intelligent or well-dressed, but not cheeky. You could use ‘smart’ to suggest paying attention or being quick… ‘Look smart, teachers coming’…although that seems rather dated. > [@Colophon](#): > > The (rather dated) British equivalent of a “smart-ass” is a “clever dick”. We do also use “smart-arse” though, as “clever dick” has rather gone out of fashion for whatever reason… One anomalous British English expression, going way back but which has I think now pretty much died out – using “smart” in the “smart-ass / arse” sense – was: to call someone a “Smart-Alec”. (Overtones of rather base, mean cunning, and being “too sly for his own good”.) The British humorist “Beachcomber”, who flourished approx. 1925 – 1975, invented a whole host of crazy, often quite surreal characters and institutions, and wrote about their doings. One such was a public school (posh private school intended for the sons of society’s upper echelons) which was dedicated to the theory and practice of petty crime and graft of all kinds; its headmaster was called Dr. Smart-Allick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-clever-in-uk-vs-us-english/645407.md?page=2)