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
- guilelessly adverb
- guilelessness noun
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 protagonist like Claire—faced with ethical dilemmas and a backstory she’d like to keep secret—is usually surrounded by the guileless and the innocent.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
“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
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
Torres plays Alejandro, a guileless young dreamer who wants to design toys that teach children about the “joy of obstacles.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2024
Loki looked as guileless as he could, which was amazingly guileless.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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.
