A lot of the time, "smart" means more like academic intelligence. A "smart person" is usually someone with good grades in school, or someone who knows a lot of facts about varying subjects. It is more synonymous with "intelligent" than clever is. "Clever," on the other hand, means more like they are cunning - they are good at APPLYING their knowledge in inventive ways. Sometimes "clever" is synonymous with "witty": a "clever person" is usually someone who can phrase things just right. Hope that answers your question!

Clever is a word that is used for people (mostly for animals such as dogs) who can think of alternative ways to wriggle out of a tough situation. If you put a barrier in front of a moving cockroach, it may not think of a way to get out but a more intelligent creature may find a way to circumvent the barrier. Clever has come to denote a person who is cunning but it is not right as clever is always used in a positive sense. On the other hand Smart is very close to intelligence though these days it has come to be associated with physical appearance. Smart is also well dressed. It is less formal than intelligent and is therefore not used in its place. Smart and clever are not synonyms as many people think, though both have similar connotations. Smart is used when a person knows a lot of stuff and also gets good grades in exams.

I agree with Albert - no difference. You might use "clever" instead of "smart" in more formal circumstances, but that's about it. Of course "smart" has lots of other meanings, whereas clever only has one. The words "cunning", "witty", "sharp", "bright", etc all have similar meanings but are focussing on a particular aspect of intelligence, whereas "clever" and "smart" just mean that something or someone has intelligence, or that something was done by something or someone that does.

There is no difference as Lin is both clever and smart. If you wanted to be pedantic then I am sure there is a difference. However, if you asked a thousand people in the United Kingdom then probably 90% would say those words meant more or less the same. I would say clever and smart meant the same thing and I have spoken English for let me see 46 years now!!! I have never learned another language but I imagine you would want to make it as sinple as possible and not to over complicate. At the end of the day language is a tool to communicate with other people. If you used either the word clever or smart 100% of the people in the United Kingdom or dare I say the USA would know what you meant.

I like Sienna's description of the differences between smart and clever. I would also describe the difference between the two as procedural intelligence vs non-procedural. By procedural I mean some thing its thought out and deduced. Which describes Sienna's academic smarts. Non-procedural would mean something that is done in a unique and almost intuitive fashion. Smart ideas are usually developed. Clever ideas are usually a product of inspiration. Case in point: A person who designs and implements a solar powered water pump for a third world village would be considered smart. A person who figures out how to attach a water pump and a kino-electric generator to children's playground toys in that third world village would probably be considered clever. The two aren't mutually exclusive. The second example would be one of someone smart finding a clever solution to a common problem.