guise
noun
general external appearance; aspect; semblance.
guise
1 American
[gahyz]
/ gaɪz /
noun
verb (used with object)
-
guises,
present (3rd person singular)
-
guised,
past participle, past
-
guising
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
guises,
present (3rd person singular)
-
guised,
past participle, past
-
guising
present participle
Guise
2
American
[geez]
/ giz /
noun
-
François de Lorraine 2nd Duc de, 1519–63, French general and statesman.
-
his son Henri I de Lorraine Duc de, 1550–88, French general and leader of opposition to the Huguenots.
guise
British
/ ɡaɪz /
noun
-
semblance or pretence
under the guise of friendship
-
external appearance in general
-
archaic manner or style of dress
-
obsolete customary behaviour or manner
verb
-
dialect to disguise or be disguised in fancy dress
-
archaic (tr) to dress or dress up
Synonym Usage
See appearance.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
guisesimple
-
guisessimple
-
have guisedperfect
-
has guisedperfect
-
am guisingprogressive
-
are guisingprogressive
-
is guisingprogressive
-
have been guisingperfect progressive
-
has been guisingperfect progressive
Past
-
guisedsimple
-
had guisedperfect
-
was guisingprogressive
-
were guisingprogressive
-
had been guisingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of guise
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English g ( u ) ise < Old French < Germanic; see wise 2: (v.) Middle English gisen, derivative of the noun
Explanation
The noun guise refers to an outward appearance that conceals the true nature of someone or something. Your classmate might chat with you under the guise of friendship, but you know she's really just looking for juicy gossip. No doubt you’ve noticed the similarity between guise and disguise. Both involve the art of deception: it’s the methods that differ. Guise is about trying on new attitudes and mannerisms, such as speaking and acting in the guise of a native in a place where you are actually a tourist. Disguise involves hiding your real identity, disappearing in the new role.
Vocabulary lists containing guise
Warm-up, List 1
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"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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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.
See Examples For:
“We must remember them. It is their homelands, their well-being and their futures that are also at stake under the guise of ensuring compliance with the Coastal Zone Management Act.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Usually, staff stage them as a tactical bait and switch: Once the block is cleared under the guise of safety, K9 units and search teams move in to tear through the empty cells.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Whether in its original eight-mile guise, or the shortened 4.3-mile version used since 1983, it has a combination of flowing, high and medium-speed corners matched by very few circuits in the world.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Some countries in the region are welcoming the military taking on a more civilian guise, said Nicholas Coppel, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
We should have made it a period ball, not the hotch-potch of humanity it was bound to be, with Giles, poor fellow, well-meaning and hearty in his guise of Arabian sheik.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
For Greg and Chris Guise, the Apple Cup comprises 40 years of family and football.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
Anastasia Guise, a resident of Billen Cliffs Village - a rural community in northern New South Wales state some 800 km distant from Sydney - has tapped Jagun for help.
From Reuters ● Sep. 12, 2023
They include Guise, a luminous fabric made partly from chenille yarns, and Forest, an intensely colorful wall covering based on his installation “Architectural Forest.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2023
France was divided between two major factions, led by the fanatically Catholic Guise family and the Huguenot Bourbon family.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
You hear, Monsieur de Bellievre," he continued, "with what kindness, protection, support, and generosity the King treats the friends of the Duke of Guise!
From Henry of Guise; (Vol. II of 3) or, The States of Blois by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
Berenger, a character who appears in different guises in several of his plays, is Ionesco’s version of Everyman.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Invasive species came in all guises: foreign pestilence, foreign capital, and the developers.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
A decade after Bowie went back to the stars, however, one of his most resilient guises has proven to be Jareth, the Goblin King at the heart of the 1986 cult favorite “Labyrinth.”
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
And at Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Kazakh artist Waldemar Zimbelmann offers viewers a slinky series of self-portraits in which the artist twists, spins and transforms himself in a series of highly textured guises.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025
Things get complicated when a pronoun, like any good understudy, takes on different guises, depending on the roles it plays in the sentence.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
You may believe you deserve your family’s love only when you are acting in ways they support, but real love should never be guised as fear or control.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2023
But for all the circusy bravado of the opening montage, this movie is neither trickle-down treat nor bacchanal guised as bromide, but rather an interrogation of an era defined by an obsession with wealth.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2018
Corden approached the subject guised as a recap of the awards show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2017
It showed an excruciatingly ill-at-ease Mr. Segel guised as Wallace circa the mid-’90s — in granny glasses and a bandanna — wearing an expression that seemed to say, “I shouldn’t be here at all.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2015
She had seen him guised as the highwayman.
From Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 by Various
She recalls giving out 70 trick or treat bags to children out guising within half an hour one year.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2024
"If you look at the origins of lots of the things about Halloween they come from here. Carving turnips, guising, wearing masks to scare off creatures," Evelyn said.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2023
In Scotland and other parts of Britain, the practice of "guising," putting on a small performance in exchange for a sweet treat or change, has been a Halloween tradition since the 16th century.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2021
The announcement of the guidance follows comments by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Thursday, who said it was "not safe" for guising to be allowed this year, due to Covid-19.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2020
Lord Grimsby was trying to recall if ever he had heard of the devil guising himself as a young red-headed girl, covering himself, from horned head to cloven hoof, in azure velvet.
From Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 by Various
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.
