beguiling
Americanadjective
adjective
-
charming or fascinating
-
using slyness to delude someone
Other Word 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.
But for the next couple of nights in L.A., a genuinely beguiling and astringent new rock band is at the height of its powers and has captured the zeitgeist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Something of the same process holds with the short stories collected in “20 Over 60,” a beguiling if uneven compendium of pieces written by 20 authors in their later years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
This, and a range of other publications hailing Asia’s economic “miracle” led Edwards to conclude “too many people believed the beguiling narrative” and as a consequence, “lent these economies cheap, abundant capital which was misallocated.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
The show redirects focus to Cathy Ames, the wife of one of the novel’s protagonists and one of the most beguiling characters in American literature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Instead, you get restored or re-created buildings with plaques and interpretation boards, so it doesn’t have much, or indeed any, real life, but it still has a certain beguiling, polished prettiness.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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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.
