beguiling
Americanadjective
adjective
-
charming or fascinating
-
using slyness to delude someone
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of beguiling
First recorded in 1575–1600; beguil(e) ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Beguiling is an adjective that means "highly attractive and tempting," like the beguiling model/actress on the cover of a celebrity magazine. Beguiling is often used to describe a person, like a beautiful girl, but can also be used when referring to a place or an inanimate object, like an Italian sports car. But be careful — sometimes beguiling things are meant to trick you, like the beguiling salesperson who acts like a friend, only to make a sale. In fact, beguiling contains the word guile, meaning "deceit, fraud, ruse, trickery."
Vocabulary lists containing beguiling
This Week in Words: March 30–April 5, 2019
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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.
But his highly anticipated return to the sci-fi summer blockbuster, the brilliant and beguiling “Disclosure Day,” is Spielberg’s most shameless appeal toward idealism yet.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Few embody a tortured, beguiling Americana quite like her.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
That truck stop ease makes “All Dressed Up” beguiling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
Together, the roof and the tower give the chapel a beguiling silhouette that can suggest anything from a giant pictograph to an abstract sculpture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Besides staving off economic collapse, the dams are ideologically beguiling to the family that runs the country.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
