Who is the woman that outsmarted Sherlock Holmes?

The woman who outsmarted Sherlock Holmes is Irene Adler.

Irene Adler appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1891 short story “A Scandal in Bohemia.” A retired American opera singer and actress, she possesses a compromising photograph of herself with the King of Bohemia. Holmes is hired to recover it before the king’s planned marriage is threatened, but Adler recognises his scheme and escapes with the photograph.

Holmes disguises himself and stages a fake emergency to make Adler reveal where she has hidden the picture. Although the trick helps him identify the hiding place, Adler has already understood that he is investigating her and leaves before Holmes can retrieve it. She leaves behind a photograph of herself instead.

Adler appears in only one original Holmes story, but Holmes calls her “the Woman” because she defeated him through intelligence. Modern adaptations often portray her as Holmes’s love interest, though Doyle’s original story emphasises his admiration for her wit rather than romance.