Synonyms for elusive
ɪˈlu sɪv; -sə ri, -zə-elu·sive

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. elusiveadjective

   difficult to describe

   "a haunting elusive odor"

   Synonyms:
   tough, knotty, problematical, subtle, baffling, problematic

   Antonyms:
   palpable, easy, tangible, identifiable, artless

2. elusiveadjective

   skillful at eluding capture

   "a cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist"- David Kline

   Synonyms:
   tough, knotty, problematical, subtle, baffling, problematic

   Antonyms:
   palpable, artless, identifiable, tangible, easy

3. elusive, subtleadjective

   difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze

   "his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change"; "a subtle difference"; "that elusive thing the soul"

   Synonyms:
   pernicious, baffling, problematic, knotty, tough, insidious, subtle, problematical

   Antonyms:
   easy, identifiable, artless, tangible, palpable

4. baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, toughadjective

   making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe

   "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home"

   Synonyms:
   subtle, gnarled, involved, knotty, problematical, debatable, ruffianly, bad, rugged, toughened, problematic, snarly, baffling, gnarly, hard, tangled, sturdy, knobbed, tough, knotted, tortuous, convoluted, snarled

   Antonyms:
   easy, palpable, tangible, identifiable, artless

Editors ContributionRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. escapability

   Submitted by rinat on August 15, 2019  

2. out of the grasp of

   happiness remains elusive until you look within.

   Submitted by dtravis on July 21, 2020  

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:5.0 / 2 votes

1. elusiveadjective

   Synonyms:
   evasive, ELUSORY

2. elusiveadjective

   Synonyms:
   equivocating, shuffling, equivocatory

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "elusive":

   unattainable, illusive, distant, evasive, unfulfilled, indomitable, sly, inaccessible, imprecise, illusory, unrealized, difficult

How to pronounce elusive?

How to say elusive in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use elusive in a sentence?

1. James Holmes:

   We are in a unique and unenviable position because we cry for James and we cry for thousands of people in Aurora, we cannot feel the depth of your pain. We can only listen to everything you have expressed, and we pray for you. We pray for your peace, your peace with the sentence. We pray for your ability to sleep at night, and your ability to find a single moment of happiness when that happiness seems completely elusive.

2. Mahatma Gandhi:

   In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

3. Northrop Frye:

   It is clear that all verbal structures with meaning are verbal imitations of that elusive psychological and physiological process known as thought, a process stumbling through emotional entanglements, sudden irrational convictions, involuntary gleams of insight, rationalized prejudices, and blocks of panic and inertia, finally to reach a completely incommunicable intuition.

4. Paul Darr:

   There’s a big push to get veterans into housing by the end of the year, here I am, four months later. As the five-year target runs out, and the cold of winter edges closer, thousands of our nation's finest remainwithout a home. While homelessness among America's finest has improved nationwide, it is still rising in 17 states, andthere's been a 13 percent increase in Washington, D.C., where 1 in every 50 veterans remains homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. As many as 840,000 men and women who have served in the uniform of the United States went to sleepwithout a home on at least one night in 2014, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans andon any given night. Many combat veterans find themselves homeless through the evil of drug addiction -- ofevery 10 veterans returning from overseas conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of them suffers fromsubstance abuse, according to the Veterans Affairs Administration. And one in every three of those veterans is also suffering from Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder( PTSD). Manyfall through the cracks, get lost in the bureaucratic flurry of papers, and disappear onto the streets. Yet the United States has begun to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees -- at an estimated resettling cost of $ 15,700 each, according the State Department, despite the plight of thousands of veterans still left out in thecold. In several interviews conducted by LifeZette around DC, many of these veterans are looking out forthemselves, and are n’t waiting on elusive aid from the federal government or the president. I ’d really love the opportunity to get a job, Darr said, his voice choking a bit as he looked away, becauseLord knows, it’s humiliating.

5. Bobby Tudor:

   Deals have been elusive because buyers are both few in number and highly cautious.