callidity means craftiness, cunning. It carries an Arena rating of 1508, earned across 153 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, callidity ranks #1,539 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,183 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,931 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #6,085 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “callidity” is a great word
CALLIDITY — [Noun] A crafty shrewdness or cunning, especially in the practical navigation of situations. From the Latin calliditas ("shrewdness, cunning"), from callidus ("crafty, shrewd"), itself from callēre ("to be skilled, experienced"). Unlike "guile," which implies deceitful trickery, or "acumen," which suggests keen intellectual judgment, callidity is the artful, seasoned skill of navigating the world. It is the gambler's instinct to fold a decent hand, the diplomat's masterful evasion in an ambiguously worded clause, and the merchant's practiced appraisal of a customer's resolve—the quiet, hard-won genius of navigating existence by its worn grain.
Etymology
Latin calliditas.
noun
- craftiness, cunninge.g.“Her eagle-ey'd callidity, deceit,
And fairy fiction rais'd above her sex” — 1752, Christopher Smart, Poems on Several Occasions, The Hop Garden:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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