facile
Americanadjective
-
moving, acting, working, proceeding, etc., with ease, sometimes with superficiality.
facile fingers; a facile mind.
-
easily done, performed, used, etc..
a facile victory; a facile method.
- Synonyms:
- superficial
-
easy or unconstrained, as manners or persons.
-
affable, agreeable, or complaisant; easily influenced.
a facile temperament; facile people.
adjective
-
easy to perform or achieve
-
working or moving easily or smoothly
-
without depth; superficial
a facile solution
-
archaic relaxed in manner; easygoing
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of facile
1475–85; < Latin facilis that can be done, easy, equivalent to fac ( ere ) to do, make + -ilis -ile
Explanation
If someone does something easily, or shows ease, it is described as facile in a good way, but if someone takes the easy way out and shows a lack of thought or care, it is facile in a bad way. While it is a lovely sounding French word, facile is both a compliment and an insult depending on how it's used. Something that shows ready skill is facile, such as being facile with text messaging. But if something is too simple and superficial, or shows little care, it can also be called facile. "Being too cowardly to tell the truth and admit he didn't do it, he used the facile and sarcastic excuse that the dog ate his homework."
Vocabulary lists containing facile
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Make Do: Fac
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yet Edward soon recoiled from this facile conflation, transferring a year later, in 1900, to the New York School of Art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
That kind of cynicism is cheap and facile and masquerades as intelligence and erudition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
It is hard to overstate just how facile this whole enterprise has proved to be.
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2026
That this is all unfolding at a convent is an obvious irony, though as handled here it isn’t a cheap or facile one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
Burr’s facile shift in his allegiance, the first in what would be several similarly agile switches during his career, captured Hamilton’s attention and produced his first recorded anti-Burr remarks, questioning Burr’s lack of political principle.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
