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View synonyms for facile

facile

[ fas-ilor, especially British, -ahyl ]

adjective

  1. moving, acting, working, proceeding, etc., with ease, sometimes with superficiality:

    facile fingers; a facile mind.

    Synonyms: glib, fluent, flowing, smooth

  2. easily done, performed, used, etc.:

    a facile victory; a facile method.

    Synonyms: superficial

  3. easy or unconstrained, as manners or persons.

    Synonyms: urbane, suave, bland

  4. affable, agreeable, or complaisant; easily influenced:

    a facile temperament; facile people.



facile

/ ˈfæsaɪl /

adjective

  1. easy to perform or achieve
  2. working or moving easily or smoothly
  3. without depth; superficial

    a facile solution

  4. archaic.
    relaxed in manner; easygoing
“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


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Derived Forms

  • ˈfacileness, noun
  • ˈfacilely, adverb
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Other Words From

  • facile·ly adverb
  • facile·ness noun
  • over·facile adjective
  • over·facile·ly adverb
  • un·facile adjective
  • un·facile·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of facile1

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

Origin of facile1

C15: from Latin facilis easy, from facere to do
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Example Sentences

The facile conclusion to draw from all this is that teenagers shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near cars.

Elections experts say such patterns can be easily explained, but Byrne called such dismissals “facile bromides” that are not reassuring to him or millions of other Americans.

If most of the McCarthy comparisons have been favorable, all of them have been facile.

I am picking them at random here, because evil is so damn facile.

Real-world profilers have to be careful, and are, not to indulge in facile ethnic, racial or religious “profiling.”

Then I picked up a book that shredded my facile preconceptions—Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Mayor Coleman Young.

But we should beware of the facile tradition of criticizing colleges, professors, and the young (or just mocking them).

But he was a man of marked executive ability, and when occasion demanded he wielded a facile and ready pen.

But the notion may very well be of older date than this period of facile illustration.

For the second time I felt my facile invention sitting somewhat less easily on me.

Indeed, Chopin even found fault with the master where he is universally regarded as facile princeps.

Wherever you go you will hear, in tram or car, the facile gossip of literature.

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faciesfacile princeps