facile

[fas-il or, esp. British, -ahyl]

SEE MORE 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.

Origin of facile

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

Related formsfac·ile·ly, adverbfac·ile·ness, nouno·ver·fac·ile, adjectiveo·ver·fac·ile·ly, adverbun·fac·ile, adjectiveun·fac·ile·ly, adverb

Can be confusedfacile facilitate facility felicitate

Synonyms for facile

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR facile ON THESAURUS.COM

1. smooth, flowing, fluent; glib. 2. superficial. 3. bland, suave; urbane.

facile princeps

[fah-ki-le pring-keps; English fas-uh-lee prin-seps]

Latin.

easily the first or best.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for facile

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

Examples from the Web for facile

Contemporary Examples of facile

If most of the McCarthy comparisons have been favorable, all of them have been facile.
Compliments Are Nice, but Enough With the Cormac McCarthy Comparisons
William Giraldi
October 21, 2014
Real-world profilers have to be careful, and are, not to indulge in facile ethnic, racial or religious “profiling.”
Inside the Mind of an ISIS Jihadi
Jamie Dettmer
September 21, 2014
Then I picked up a book that shredded my facile preconceptions—Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Mayor Coleman Young.
A Ghostwriter Steps Out of the Shadows
Bill Morris
September 17, 2014
But we should beware of the facile tradition of criticizing colleges, professors, and the young (or just mocking them).
The Elite American College Pile-On
Michael S. Roth
September 15, 2014
So subsequent headlines made a facile connection with media violence.
The Mad Shooter of Paris Is a ‘Natural Born Killer’
Christopher Dickey
November 21, 2013

Historical Examples of facile

This was his special gift and as usual in such cases he was not a facile writer.
Cleveland Past and Present
Maurice Joblin
I cannot brush aside the problem by a facile reference to reincarnation.
Mountain Meditations
L. Lind-af-Hageby
Consequently the poisoners of the wells of truth had a facile task.
England and Germany
Emile Joseph Dillon
A Latin tag came into my head about the facile descent into the abyss.
The Arrow of Gold
Joseph Conrad
Mrs. Austen, in spite of her facile digestion, gagged at it.
The Paliser case
Edgar Saltus

British Dictionary definitions for facile

facile

adjective

easy to perform or achieve

working or moving easily or smoothly

without depth; superficiala facile solution

archaic relaxed in manner; easygoing

Derived Formsfacilely, adverbfacileness, noun

Word Origin for facile

C15: from Latin facilis easy, from facere to do

facile princeps

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

Word Origin and History for facile

adj.

late 15c., from Middle French facile "easy," from Latin facilis "easy to do" and, of persons, "pliant, courteous," from facere "to do" (see factitious).

facile princeps

Latin, literally "easily first." An acknowledged leader or chief.