April 24, 2008
Wednesday, 23rd April 2008 : Today's Word is ...
Guile
Pronunciation : gil
1. a cunning, deceitful or treacherous quality
2. the act or practice of deceiving
3. shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception
Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English wigle, divination, sorcery.
cunning, astuteness, treachery, slyness, wiliness, craftiness, cleverness, deviousness, deceit, duplicity, trickiness, deceitfulness
artlessness, candor, frankness, honesty, naivety, openness, sincerity
• The speaker seemed to be full of guile so I did not believe a word of the speech.
• From the time he received this news to the end of the campaign all Kutuzov's activity was directed toward restraining his troops, by authority, by guile and by entreaty, from useless attacks, maneuvers or encounters with the perishing enemy.
• Society had three arms in its contest with the individual, laws, public opinion and conscience: the first two could be met by guile. But not the third one.
• guilefulness : Noun
• guileless : Adjective
• guileful : Adjective
• guilefully : Adverb
• guilelessly : Adverb
• guilelessness : Noun
• beguile : Verb
• beguilement : Noun
• beguiler : Noun