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Adroit goes back to an Old French word meaning "handsome or elegant" as well as "skilled in combat." The adjective is still used to imply skillfulness, but usually not of the physical kind. Adroit most often describes cleverness that achieves one's purpose in spite of difficulties.
Synonyms
Examples of adroit in a Sentence
Walter Shapiro, Time, 10 July 1989
He was adroit with money and was blessed with the extraordinary Spanish gift of prolific, and even inchoate, invention.
—V. S. Pritchett, "Goya … ," 1975,
in A Man of Letters, 1985
Family medicine … is constructed around the unquantifiable idea that a doctor who treats your grandmother, your father, your niece, and your daughter will be more adroit in treating you.
—John McPhee, Table of Contents, 1984
She is adroit at handling problems.
with an adroit flick of the wrist, flipped the omelet into the air and landed it squarely back in the pan
Alison Herman, Variety, 5 Apr. 2024
The adroit reshufflings of narrative and perspective in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and ‘Poor Things’?
—Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2023
The fashion house is known for its adroit use of off-kilter patterns, which, in the skilled hands of Risso, convey a cerebral, never-twee aesthetic that is no less reflected in this new line.
—Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 25 Aug. 2023
These mother-and-son exchanges rinse and repeat in the first stages of the storytelling, under the adroit direction of Rob Lutfy, mingling tension and absurdity.
—David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for adroit 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adroit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Adroit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adroit. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
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adroit
adjective
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