The answer is SPRY, four letters. A bare Nimble clue has several standard fills and the grid picks between them: SPRY and DEFT both take four squares, AGILE and LITHE take five, ADROIT takes six. Get an exact square count down before you commit ink, because all of these turn up often enough to share a single week of puzzles.
Nimble fingers, nimble feet and a nimble mind
Nimble is unusual among the speed words because it covers three different kinds of quickness. It describes hands, as in a nimble touch on a keyboard. It describes footwork, as in a boxer slipping a punch. And it describes thinking, as in a negotiator who reframes a question before anyone notices it has moved. The synonyms do not share that range. SPRY only covers bodily liveliness, DEFT only covers skill, AGILE stretches across body and mind but leans physical. So the fill you enter is always narrower than the clue, and that is the constructor doing you a small favor: the wording stays open, the answer does not.
Surface reading matters here. If the clue sits in a themed puzzle about dance or gymnastics, the intended sense is physical and SPRY or AGILE lead. If the surrounding entries are about wit and argument, AGILE and ADROIT move up.
Spry carries an age assumption
SPRY is almost never applied to the young. You will hear a spry eighty year old, a spry retiree, a spry grandmother still doing her own yard work, and you will almost never hear anyone call a toddler spry. The word quietly means lively for someone that age, and that buried comparison is the whole reason it survives in modern English when dozens of its neighbors have faded.
For a solver this is free information. If the clue wording mentions age, seniors, veterans or retirement in any form, SPRY is close to a lock. It is also a friendly entry to have in a grid: S, P and R cross easily, and only the final Y constrains what can sit beneath it.
Counting the squares before you pick a synonym
Run the count first and the field shrinks fast.
| Letters | Answer | What pulls it in |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | SPRY | Plain wording, or any hint of age |
| 4 | DEFT | Skill rather than speed |
| 5 | AGILE | The all purpose fill, body or mind |
| 5 | LITHE | Flexible, usually a body |
| 5 | FLEET | Pure speed, often fleet of foot |
| 6 | ADROIT | Clever handling, close to DEFT |
| 6 | SUPPLE | Bending, not hurrying |
| 7 | LISSOME | Rare, graceful and slender |
Where deft parts company with nimble
DEFT is about skill applied, not about speed at all. A deft edit, a deft substitution, a deft answer to a hostile question: each one implies the job was done well, and none of them implies it was done quickly. Nimble runs the other way. Someone can move nimbly through a crowd without any skill being involved. Editors treat the two as close enough to swap when a grid demands it, so read the wording rather than the headword: skillful pulls DEFT, quick moving pulls SPRY.
ADROIT sits on the DEFT side of that line. English took it from French along with its opposite number, gauche, and the pair still carries the old right hand and left hand split, one meaning handy and the other meaning awkward.
Letting one crossing decide between SPRY and DEFT
Not one letter is common to both of the four letter candidates, in any position. S, P, R and Y against D, E, F and T, so one letter verified at any position in the slot decides it outright, which makes this one of the easier ambiguities in a grid. Stop staring at the clue and solve whatever runs through it.
The five letter pair is slightly nastier. AGILE and LITHE both end in E, so a crossing that confirms the last square tells you nothing. Their second letters, G against I, are where they separate. If you are guessing under time pressure, look for the down entry that crosses square two and work that one instead. The same discipline applies to any clue with a crowded synonym field: the fastest route to the answer usually runs perpendicular to it.
Frequently asked questions
Is SPRY or AGILE the more common answer for Nimble?
Both are standard. SPRY wins four letter slots and AGILE wins five letter slots, so the square count decides rather than the wording in most puzzles.
Why do crosswords use SPRY so often?
It is short, it packs no awkward letters except the final Y, and it is one of the few common English words that means nimble for one's age, which gives editors an easy clue angle.
What is the six letter answer for Nimble?
ADROIT is the usual six letter fill, with SUPPLE as the alternative when the clue leans toward flexibility rather than skill.
