subtle
The lyrics have been subtly altered.
He subtly implied that she hadn't been happy at work.
Her appearance had changed, subtly but perceptibly.
If you're more subtly sexy you're still noticed but in a different way.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Intelligence
acuity
acumen
agility
apt
aptness
brain
grey matter
gumption
highbrow
horse sense
hyper-intelligent
penetrative
perceptively
percipient
percipiently
perspicacious
perspicaciously
profundity
whip-smart
wisdom

Examples of subtly

subtly
Researchers, for instance, can help shape results by anticipating preferred outcomes and subtly providing conditions that favor their development.
Each thread is in turn shown to comprise plied strands of sub-agendas and contradictions which are subtly explored.
Their narratives and memories of inter-racial relationships based on mutual responsibility and trust should not be rejected but evaluated more subtly.
The keyboard could now be used more subtly, allowing more possible outcomes and a more intricate type of interaction.
They are able to buy smaller accommodation, thus releasing capital to fund a comfortable lifestyle and subtly containing the deterioration of their bodies.
We conclude that all these reference proposals, while similar in intent and structure, have subtly different balances of emphasis.
The harmony changes subtly when the pitches are permutated: one pitch is replaced by, say, its chromatic neighbour.
Such subtly organized narratives could thus turn ambiguous and often complex backgrounds into politically acceptable biographies.
When they did not, he took few public chances, preferring instead to work subtly, which usually meant slowly, behind the scenes or not at all.
This emphasis is subtly reinforced by the format of each book.
Individual women drew upon and subtly adapted such sets of moral prescriptions for their own ends and to create their own voice.
Importantly, these biases appear automatic, unconscious, and unintentional, thus creating a subtly hostile environment to out-groups that eludes rational decisionmaking.
Alternatively, and more subtly, it is suggested that childlessness may be an index of unsatisfactory marital adjustment rather than a causal factor in marriage breakdown.
However, experimentation with the two models may lead to subtly different empirical predictions.
His long body is loose and relaxed, his arms often held at his sides, his face impassive, registering emotions only subtly.
See all examples of subtly
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.