How to Use subtlety in a Sentence

subtlety

noun
  • The pianist performed with subtlety and passion.
  • But the video has all the subtlety of a 1990s Calvin Klein campaign.
    Choire Sicha, Vulture, 13 July 2023
  • The art is in the subtlety, not in the effort of trying to convince.
    Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 1 June 2023
  • The subtlety of the sport — which, as any expert will tell you, is nearly all of the sport — is erased.
    Jack Hamilton, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2022
  • The condenser in the LS-208 has sufficient size to catch the nuance and subtlety of a wide range of sounds.
    Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2023
  • When subtlety didn’t work, the Emmys started to play music to try to shoo Coolidge off the stage.
    Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2022
  • My mom played, with great talent and subtlety, the role of a mother and a father.
    Lily Moayeri, Billboard, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Then again, considering Uhry and Brown’s text and lyrics, subtlety need not be the name of the game these days.
    Juan A. Ramírez, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2022
  • Austin sank to the floor and found stunning softness and subtlety in its andante.
    Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2023
  • No one ever accused Skrillex of subtlety, and this is prime in-your-face fun.
    Pitchfork, 7 Dec. 2023
  • The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max offer more detail and more subtlety in the lighting around the puddle to the left, and the city lights in the distance look less blown out.
    Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 21 Sep. 2022
  • More than a decade after their takeover of the dance scene, the depth and subtlety of Paradise Again reflects that the time taken was worth it.
    Katie Bain, Billboard, 15 Apr. 2022
  • And the subtlety is the reason why many companies may fail to notice.
    Laura Rodríguez Presa, Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan. 2023
  • Zombie has some inventive ideas in terms of how the film is shot, but this lacks any of the subtlety of the original film.
    Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 19 Oct. 2022
  • The statement lies within the subtlety of these Cast earrings.
    Roxanne Adamiyatt, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2023
  • These tiny bits go a long way to elevate with subtlety.
    Roxanne Adamiyatt, Town & Country, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Collins has long understood that subtlety is a waste of time and flavor.
    Keaton Bell, Vogue, 19 Sep. 2022
  • As the sun moves to different windows, and as the rays slope lower at day's end, yet more design subtleties rise to your notice.
    Patrick Bedard, Car and Driver, 1 June 2023
  • Shaped from masa into palm-size moons, arepas puff up just a little on a grill with the subtlety of a shrugging shoulder.
    Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 July 2022
  • The set goes plenty hard, but there’s a welcome sense of subtlety in even its most bracing passages.
    Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Barton is big on symbols but not on subtlety, making her points with a heavy hand.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 12 June 2022
  • With its bare-bones production, the single’s power is in its subtlety, but MyKey pulls off a rare feat here.
    Jason Lipshutz, Billboard, 9 Jan. 2023
  • There’s a nice subtlety here for those who want to be reminded of fall-winter flavors.
    Marc Bona, cleveland, 8 Jan. 2023
  • The finish is soft and glowing and leaves my skin looking smoother and subtlety radiant.
    Tiffany Dodson, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 Nov. 2022
  • Officials at the Nashville airport have had plenty of chances to practice the art of subtlety.
    Nathan Diller, USA TODAY, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The Hewland transmission fires through the ratios with the subtlety of a .50 caliber machine gun.
    Angus MacKenzie, Robb Report, 7 Dec. 2023
  • But a couple of tasters dinged it for (again) excessive subtlety.
    Emily Heil, Anchorage Daily News, 29 June 2023
  • Baz Luhrmann has never been one for subtlety and this Elvis Presley biopic doesn’t appear likely to change that.
    Keith Phipps, Rolling Stone, 31 May 2022
  • Morgen has a nose for many things, but moderation and subtlety are not among them.
    Hilton Als, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2022
  • The subtleties of language, race, and wealth within South Africa opened new lands of curiosity within me.
    A. Trevor Sutton, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subtlety.' 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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