Hello Athenacy, 'Smooth operator' as a slang term means a man with a polished and winning personality who has amatory and sexual success with women., something like a ladies man. While a 'smooth talker' refers to someone who has a very rare ability to say all the right things at the right time. Even when a situation is not in their favor, by the end of the night their uncanny ability with words has turned a unfavorable situation into an advantage. So a 'smooth operator' could be a 'smooth talker' as well ;)

Cherry quoted some excellent examples. Athenancy, here are some links so you can see more definitions like the following. 1. smooth-operator: "a man of with a polished and winning personality who has amatory and sexual success with women" *http://www.definition-of.com/smooth+operator *http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatDoesMeanSmoothOperator/bjkvr/post.htm 2. smooth-talker: "someone who has a very rare ability to say all the right things at the right time. Even when a situation is not in their favor, by the end of the night their uncanny ability with words has turned a unfavorable situation into an advantage" *http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smooth-talker Hope this helps! Source: google.com

They are slightly different: 1. A "smooth operator" is a person who handles (operates) situations with ease (smoothly). However, this is not used (at least in the U.S., that I know) in natural English. This is better known as a title of a song by the English group Sade. 2. A "smooth talker" is a person who has a significant ability to use words to get what they want. You will hear "smooth talker" used much more often. Source: American English (self), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_Operator