How to spell smart

hear itsmart/smɑrt/adjectiveSounds

What it means: Having or showing quick intelligence or cleverness.

In a sentence: The smart dog can do cool tricks.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as smert or smrat.

Same family: smartly, smartness, smart-aleck, cheeky, sassy. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: In older English, 'smart' first meant 'to cause sharp pain' or 'to sting,' and then came to describe words or behavior that 'sting' socially. That sense of a sharp, stinging quality later also helped give rise to the modern meaning of 'clever' or 'intelligent.'

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Words like this

right · start · part · smell · trap · skirt · throat

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