Guile Definition

gīl
guiles
noun
guiles
Slyness and cunning in dealing with others.
Webster's New World
A trick or stratagem.
American Heritage

(uncountable) Astuteness often marked by a certain sense of cunning or artful deception.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
verb
To beguile; deceive.
American Heritage

To deceive, to beguile.

Wiktionary

Origin of Guile

  • From Middle English gile, from Anglo-Norman gile, from Old French guile (“deception”), from Frankish *wigila (“ruse”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with wile.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old French of Germanic origin Old English wigle divination, sorcery

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Guile Sentence Examples

  • You might have to use considerable guile to find out what's going on.

  • The Picts used a bit of tactical guile and lured the Northumbrians into a trap with deadly results.

  • This year's budget is $17 million and the student cohort will be $15,000 - a growth achieved through graft and a little guile.

  • The incident, whether due to chance or guile, brought about the resignation of Crispi.

  • Her reputation for honesty and directness, which is not false, masks an apparently artless guile.

More Sentences

Related Articles

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to guile using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

GGUGUI

Words Ending With

ELEILE

Unscrambles

guile

Words Starting With G and Ending With E

Starts With G & Ends With EStarts With GU & Ends With EStarts With G & Ends With LE

Word Length

5 Letter Words5 Letter Words Starting With G5 Letter Words Ending With E