clever, adroit, cunning, ingenious mean having or showing practical wit or skill in contriving.

clever stresses physical or mental quickness, deftness, or great aptitude.

adroit often implies a skillful use of expedients to achieve one's purpose in spite of difficulties.

cunning implies great skill in constructing or creating.

ingenious suggests the power of inventing or discovering a new way of accomplishing something.

sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick mean attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means.

sly implies furtiveness, lack of candor, and skill in concealing one's aims and methods.

cunning suggests the inventive use of sometimes limited intelligence in overreaching or circumventing.

crafty implies cleverness and subtlety of method.

wily implies skill and deception in maneuvering.

tricky is more likely to suggest shiftiness and unreliability than skill in deception and maneuvering.

foxy implies a shrewd and wary craftiness usually involving devious dealing.

artful implies indirectness in dealing and often connotes sophistication or cleverness.

slick emphasizes smoothness and guile.

art, skill, cunning, artifice, craft mean the faculty of executing well what one has devised.

art implies a personal, unanalyzable creative power.

skill stresses technical knowledge and proficiency.

cunning suggests ingenuity and subtlety in devising, inventing, or executing.

artifice suggests technical skill especially in imitating things in nature.

craft may imply expertness in workmanship.