beguiling
Americanadjective
adjective
-
charming or fascinating
-
using slyness to delude someone
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of beguiling
First recorded in 1575–1600; beguil(e) ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Beguiling is an adjective that means "highly attractive and tempting," like the beguiling model/actress on the cover of a celebrity magazine. Beguiling is often used to describe a person, like a beautiful girl, but can also be used when referring to a place or an inanimate object, like an Italian sports car. But be careful — sometimes beguiling things are meant to trick you, like the beguiling salesperson who acts like a friend, only to make a sale. In fact, beguiling contains the word guile, meaning "deceit, fraud, ruse, trickery."
Vocabulary lists containing beguiling
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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.
Few embody a tortured, beguiling Americana quite like her.
From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026
But it wasn’t until 2003, when he and his wife, Libby, became full-time St. Andrews residents for an extended period, that Mr. Peper began this beguiling memoir.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
That truck stop ease makes “All Dressed Up” beguiling.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
From Nana, Sadia heard beguiling stories about her grandmother’s young life in Bombay and later years in Karachi, Pakistan, where she fled after the 1947 Partition of India.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026
It is a bird of spectacular appearance and beguiling habits, building its floating nests in shallow lakes of western United States and Canada.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
