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
This Week in Words: March 30–April 5, 2019
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"The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven"
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Twelve Years a Slave
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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.
Appeared in the September 27, 2025, print edition as 'A Beguiling Supersedan Hopes For a Second Chance at Karma'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 25, 2025
Beguiling as the hypothesis is, however, it is just a theory and almost impossible to test.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 7, 2022
Beguiling as the performances are, "Yellowjackets" displays as much potential to go off the rails as it does to interrogate our preconceived notions about acceptable female archetypes and depictions in popular culture.
From Salon • Nov. 14, 2021
As to the winner of the Beguiling & Charming Sons of the South match, Payne is diplomatic.
From Golf Digest • Aug. 23, 2017
Here Ischia smiles o'er liquid miles, And yonder, bluest of the isles, Calm Capri waits, her sapphire gates Beguiling to her bright estates.
From The Canadian Elocutionist by Howard, Anna Kelsey
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.
