guile

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Astuteness often marked by a certain sense of cunning or artful deception.
  2. Deceptiveness, deceit, fraud, duplicity, dishonesty.
verb
  1. To deceive, beguile, bewile.
noun
  1. Obsolete form of gold.
  2. Alternative form of gyle.
name
  1. A surname from French.

Pronunciation

/ɡaɪl/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-guile.wav

Word forms

guile guiles guiling guiled

Etymology

From Middle English gile, from Anglo-Norman gile, from Old French guile (“deception”), from Frankish *wīl (“ruse”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą, from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with wile.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.