guileless
Americanadjective
-
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.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of guileless
Explanation
If you are guileless, you are not a liar; you are innocent, and you might be a touch on the gullible side. To be guileless is to be without guile. Guile is "deceit, duplicity and trickery." The young and uninitiated are the ones we call guileless, and they are the ones who often get stung by the more heartless among us. You might recall being a guileless freshman trying out for the school play, and being told by a veteran performer that it would be best to come to the audition for Our Town in a chicken costume, so you did.
Vocabulary lists containing guileless
The Kite Runner
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Jungle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“A party plaintiff’s misguided belief or guileless action in relying on a statement on which no reasonable person would rely is not justifiable reliance,” according to Vondran Legal, which has offices in California and Arizona.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 23, 2026
Bald with severe features but a soft and guileless disposition, he’s fidgety about the whole Hollywood press dance — this is only his fourth feature film score.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 24, 2025
But don’t let the big smile and the guileless demeanor fool you: Diane Keaton was no lightweight.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 13, 2025
The orphaned 20-year-old niece of a London plumber, Cluny is guileless, openhearted and supremely self-confident.
From New York Times • May 4, 2024
In all this, his dreamer’s eyes were incongruous: gray and wide and guileless.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
