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facile

[ fas-il or, esp. British, -ahyl ]
/ ˈfæs ɪl or, esp. British, -aɪl /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR facile ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

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.
easy or unconstrained, as manners or persons.
affable, agreeable, or complaisant; easily influenced: a facile temperament; facile people.

Words related to facile

glib, hasty, effortless, accomplished, adept, adroit, apparent, articulate, breeze, cursory, deft, dexterous, flip, fluent, light, obvious, picnic, practiced, proficient, pushover

Words nearby facile

facial tic, facial tissue, facial vein, facialist, facies, facile, facile princeps, facilis descensus averno, facilitate, facilitation, facilitator

Origin of facile

1475–85; < Latin facilis that can be done, easy, equivalent to fac(ere) to do, make + -ilis -ile

OTHER WORDS FROM facile

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH facile

facile facilitate facility felicitate

Definition for facile (2 of 2)

facile princeps
[ fah-ki-le pring-keps; English fas-uh-lee prin-seps ]
/ ˈfɑ kɪˌlɛ ˈprɪŋ kɛps; English ˈfæs ə li ˈprɪn sɛps /

Latin.

easily the first or best.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for facile

British Dictionary definitions for facile (1 of 2)

facile
/ (ˈfæsaɪl) /

adjective

easy to perform or achieve
working or moving easily or smoothly
without depth; superficiala facile solution
archaic relaxed in manner; easygoing

Derived forms of facile

facilely, adverbfacileness, noun

Word Origin for facile

C15: from Latin facilis easy, from facere to do

British Dictionary definitions for facile (2 of 2)

facile princeps
/ Latin (ˈfæsɪlɪ ˈprɪnsɛps) /

noun

an obvious leader

Word Origin for facile princeps

literally: easily first
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012