guileless

guile·less

adjective \ˈgī(-ə)l-ləs\

Definition of GUILELESS

: innocent, naive

— guile·less·ly adverb

— guile·less·ness noun

Examples of GUILELESS

1. <she was an easygoing, guileless young woman who was comfortable just being herself>

First Known Use of GUILELESS

circa 1616

Related to GUILELESS

Synonyms

artless, genuine, honest, ingenuous, innocent, naive (or naïve), natural, real, simple, sincere, true, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, on the level

Antonyms

affected, artful, artificial, assuming, dishonest, dissembling, dissimulating, fake, false, guileful, insincere, phony (also phoney), pretentious

Related Words

childlike, dewy-eyed, gee-whiz, impressionable, inexperienced, malleable, persuadable, persuasible, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly, wide-eyed; spontaneous, unforced, unstudied; candid, direct, frank, free, free-spoken, open, openhearted, plain, plainspoken, single-minded, straight, straightforward, unguarded; trustful, trusting; exploitable, gullible (also gullable), susceptible, unwary

Near Antonyms

critical, cynical, mistrustful, skeptical, suspicious, wary; cosmopolitan, sophisticated, worldly, worldly-wise; civilized, cultivated, cultured, polished, refined; crooked, deceitful, deceptive, devious, double-dealing, hypocritical, manipulative, two-faced; arch, calculating, canny, crafty, cunning, designing, foxy, knavish, scheming, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slippery, sly, subtle, tricky, underhanded, wily; flattering, mealymouthed, smooth, sycophantic, unctuous; feigned, forced, strained