Sleight means skill or cleverness, especially with your hands, often used to trick or deceive in an entertaining way. When a magician makes a coin disappear, she's using sleight of hand: her fingers move so quickly and skillfully that you can't see what she's really doing.

The word almost always appears in the phrase sleight of hand, which describes the quick, precise movements magicians use to fool the eye. A street magician performing a card trick uses sleight of hand to make you think you're following the queen, when he's actually switching the cards faster than you can track.

Sleight carries a sense of clever trickery, but it usually suggests skill worth admiring, like a cardistry expert fanning and shuffling a deck with impossible-looking moves. When you watch someone with true sleight of hand, even knowing you're being fooled doesn't stop you from being amazed by their dexterity and the practice behind it.