guileless
free from deception or slyness; sincere and straightforward: No matter the situation, she was always transparent, guileless, and above any petty manipulative ploys.
lacking awareness of the world and worldly things; innocent or naive: He agreed to this crafty proposal, being guileless, and soon found himself betrayed and in trouble.
Origin of guileless
1Other words for guileless
Other words from guileless
- guile·less·ly, adverb
- guile·less·ness, noun
Words Nearby guileless
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use guileless in a sentence
Casting the bubbly, adorable Feldstein opposite the prosthetically monstrosified Paulson and Owen is like casting a guileless little bunny as the final girl in a creature feature.
A professional writer’s prose is never guileless or innocent.
The greatest prison escape ever? ‘The Confidence Men’ tells a sensational true story. | Michael Dirda | June 16, 2021 | Washington PostI was guileless, eager to take risks, a catamaran racing breakneck through every channel I encountered.
Lucinda Franks, Pulitzer-winning journalist and author, dies at 74 | Harrison Smith | May 6, 2021 | Washington PostIn a town populated by guileless, soft-hearted idealists, Terry is refreshingly complex—ruthless in advancing his own material interests but also sincerely committed to righting the historical wrongs perpetrated against his people.
Can the Ambitious, Uneven Rutherford Falls Do for American History What The Good Place Did for Philosophy? | Judy Berman | April 22, 2021 | TimeAda is guileless and candid with a natural storytelling manner that’s immediately engaging.
In Anna North’s riveting ‘Outlawed,’ there’s nothing more dangerous than a childless woman | Ron Charles | January 7, 2021 | Washington Post
At its most pejorative, the term describes a uniquely disposable kind of young gay man: Hairless, guileless, witless.
She is, in the words of former Reagan operative Jeffrey Lord, “a guileless, fevered Marxist.”
It puts you in touch with your guileless goals and essential desires.
And then, as in this 1972 letter to James Ivory, he is touchingly vulnerable and guileless.
As guileless, though as self-reliant, gentlewomen as sequestered England could produce.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol | William J. LockeIn spite of her sharpened wits, Mrs. Kaye smiled radiantly into Isabel's guileless eyes.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonHe was thirty but looked little over twenty, and his large limpid blue eyes were as guileless as a child's.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonThe guileless Connie saw a pink mass in the dim shadows opposite her.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume II (of 3) | Charles James WillsThe leopards came and sat near the houses as guileless as children; the boars snorted and ran into the rice fields to hide.
Kari the Elephant | Dhan Gopal Mukerji
British Dictionary definitions for guileless
/ (ˈɡaɪllɪs) /
free from guile; ingenuous
Derived forms of guileless
- guilelessly, adverb
- guilelessness, noun
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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