guileless
Americanadjective
-
free from deception or slyness; sincere and straightforward.
No matter the situation, she was always transparent, guileless, and above any petty manipulative ploys.
-
lacking awareness of the world and worldly things; innocent or naive.
He agreed to this crafty proposal, being guileless, and soon found himself betrayed and in trouble.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of guileless
Explanation
If you are guileless, you are not a liar; you are innocent, and you might be a touch on the gullible side. To be guileless is to be without guile. Guile is "deceit, duplicity and trickery." The young and uninitiated are the ones we call guileless, and they are the ones who often get stung by the more heartless among us. You might recall being a guileless freshman trying out for the school play, and being told by a veteran performer that it would be best to come to the audition for Our Town in a chicken costume, so you did.
Vocabulary lists containing guileless
The Kite Runner
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Jungle
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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.
Guileless and fresh-faced, she exudes that most ineffable of qualities: Jesse has “It.”
From Salon • Jul. 3, 2016
Guileless, farouche, wholly uninhibited in her reading of Marston's choreography, she projects a reach-out-and-touch-me naturalness that compels both pity and wonder.
From The Guardian • May 25, 2013
Guileless and guiltless, it conveyed an Edenic sensuality: how lovely it must have been in the Garden, before the fall.
From Time Magazine Archive
Guileless and without vanity, we were still in love with ourselves then.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
This "Traum" theme is almost precisely like the "Guileless Fool Motive" of "Parsifal," and the application to Fatima is unmistakable.
From Bluebeard; a musical fantasy by Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
Definitions 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.
