sleight of hand

Sleight of hand means skill using one’s hands in quick and clever ways to perform tricks or to be deceptive.

It can also refer to the performance of such tricks or a specific instance of it, as in Never have I seen a more impressive sleight of hand. 

In sleight of hand, the word sleight means skill or dexterity. By itself, it can also mean trickery or cunning, or a specific trick or scheme. It’s by far most commonly used in sleight of hand. 

Sleight of hand can also mean general trickery or skill at deception. It’s associated not only with coin and card tricks that require skillful hand movements, but also with deceptive ways of stealing, such as pickpocketing.

Sleight of hand is frequently used in more figurative ways to criticize actions or words as deceptive, as in His comment is a clever sleight of hand intended to distract us from the real issue. It can also be used to compare something to a magic trick, as in Her literary sleight of hand is dazzling.

Example: The illusionist spent years perfecting his sleight of hand so that it was undetectable even at close range.

The first records of the phrase sleight of hand come from the 1300s. Sleight is first recorded in the 1200s and comes from Old Norse slægth, from slægr, which means “sly” and originally had the meaning of “able to strike” or “able to slay.” In fact, the English words sly and slay are related to the same root.

Sleight of hand requires extreme skill and nimbleness, which often take years of practice to perfect. But it also often relies on misdirection—meaning the distraction of the audience watching the trick. For this reason, it’s often used in figurative ways that liken an action or a way or speaking to a deceptive magic trick.

Sleight should not be confused with the word slight, which has the same pronunciation. As an adjective, slight means small or insignificant. As a noun, it commonly means the act of treating someone with indifference or snubbing them.

What are some synonyms for sleight of hand?

• legerdemain
• trickery

What are some words that share a root or word element with sleight of hand? 

• sleight
• hand
• sly
• slay

What are some words that often get used in discussing sleight of hand?

• dexterity
• deception
• nimble
• magic
• magician
• illusion
• performance

What are some words sleight of hand may be commonly confused with?

• slight

Sleight of hand is commonly used in both literal and figurative ways.

Propaganda and brain washing work like sleight of hand magic: Point away from the important issue to distract and on details that don’t matter.

— Yaneer Bar-Yam (@yaneerbaryam) June 3, 2020

Few car chases top the wrong-way highway chase in William Friedkin’s ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’ Here’s how they shot the iconic chase scene using hydraulic car-rigs, visual sleight-of-hand, and 900 (!) cars. https://t.co/9G2O29NROf

— One Perfect Shot (@OnePerfectShot) July 25, 2020

"Kandasamy is showing us the sleight of hand in slow motion, and grinning from ear to ear as she does so." @snsyquia on @meenakandasamy's “When I Hit You” and “Exquisite Cadavers”: https://t.co/66sAWr5YNz pic.twitter.com/WYF3sYkKcR

— LA Review of Books (LARB) (@LAReviewofBooks) May 6, 2020

Is sleight of hand used correctly in the following sentence?

By some sleight of hand, she has managed to convince the staff to work overtime without overtime pay.