facile

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

/ ˈfæs ɪl or, esp. British, -aɪl /

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.

Nearby words

Origin of facile

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

SYNONYMS FOR facile

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

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR facile ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

fac·ile·ly, adverbfac·ile·ness, nouno·ver·fac·ile, adjectiveo·ver·fac·ile·ly, adverb

un·fac·ile, adjectiveun·fac·ile·ly, adverb

Can be confusedfacile facilitate facility felicitate

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

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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST

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|DAILY BEAST
She had never made the mistake of thinking that because his grief was facile it was any the less strong and real.
Why Joan?|Eleanor Mercein Kelly
The lay of the land and the lack of a powerful suzerain state to defend them made the Riverains facile prey.
Riviera Towns|Herbert Adams Gibbons
A great man dies not with so mean a jest, and Tyburn was untouched to mirth by Shotland's facile humour.
A Book of Scoundrels|Charles Whibley
(Then annoyed with their facile humiliation): Get up, sheep!
Three Plays|Luigi Pirandello
Then I am of a peculiar disposition—I own that—far from facile, without address, in some points eccentric.
Shirley|Charlotte Bront

British Dictionary definitions for facile

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 Formsfacilely, adverbfacileness, noun

Word Origin for facile

C15: from Latin facilis easy, from facere to do

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