subtle
Of an action or movement: very delicate or slight, and thus barely noticeable; not obvious; inconspicuous, unintrusive.
Other meanings
Of a substance, especially a gas or liquid: of low density or thin consistency; rarefied, tenuous; hence, tending to spread everywhere due to this quality.
Of an argument or concept, words, etc.: requiring one to distinguish between fine points, especially if it is difficult to do so; nice; also , difficult to grasp; not easily understood or obvious.
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "subtīlis".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “subtle” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.