Synonyms of beguiling

beguiling 1 of 2

adjective

bi-ˈgī-liŋ 

1

as in cunning

clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

a smart and beguiling child who can manipulate her parents with alarming ease

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cunning
• cute
• subtle
• deceptive
• slick
• fraudulent
• artful
• wily
• dishonest
• treacherous
• shrewd
• sly
• designing
• tricky
• crooked
• guileful
• devious
• foxy
• cagey
• scheming
• crafty
• deceitful
• dodgy
• slippery
• shady
• cagy
• calculating
• sharp
• astute
• glib
• unscrupulous
• covert
• clandestine
• oblique
• sneaky
• shifty
• circular
• facile
• undercover
• serpentine
• plotting
• Machiavellian
• knavish
• secret
• hypocritical
• concealed
• roundabout
• circuitous
• underhanded
• surreptitious
• insincere
• furtive
• stealthy
• insinuating
• underhand
• backhanded
• two-faced
• smooth-tongued
• mealy
• double-dealing
• mealymouthed
• left-handed
• hugger-mugger

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• ingenuous
• guileless
• innocent
• artless
• obvious
• public
• plain
• simple
• real
• open
• straightforward
• unaffected
• forthright
• direct
• unpretentious
• natural
• sincere
• candid
• unconcealed
• honest
• frank
• outspoken
• childlike
• unsophisticated
• unvarnished
• unpretending
• patent
• impressionable
• unworldly
• simpleminded
• undesigning
• plainspoken
• aboveboard
• unstudied
• unforced
• trusting
• trustful

2

as in misleading

tending or having power to deceive

the beguiling allure of a life of crime

Synonyms & Similar Words

• misleading
• deceptive
• false
• ambiguous
• deceitful
• delusive
• specious
• incorrect
• deceiving
• fallacious
• subtle
• delusory
• inaccurate
• cunning
• perplexing
• wily
• deluding
• fraudulent
• artful
• crooked
• puzzling
• confounding
• slick
• trick
• tricky
• sly
• treacherous
• foxy
• crafty
• sneaky
• shifty
• bewildering
• devious
• mendacious
• dishonest
• subtile
• lying
• distracting
• duplicitous
• shady
• wrong
• insidious
• untrustworthy
• guileful
• artificial
• underhanded
• forged
• faithless
• counterfeit
• evasive
• perfidious
• trickish
• untruthful
• underhand
• spurious
• fake
• bogus
• knavish
• phoney
• hypocritical
• feigned
• dissembling
• circuitous
• equivocal
• ambidextrous
• phony
• insincere
• sneaking
• jive
• fast
• sham
• double-dealing
• defrauding
• backhanded
• two-faced
• left-handed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• straightforward
• forthright
• direct
• plain
• candid
• frank
• outspoken
• open
• illuminating
• straight
• aboveboard
• explanatory
• nondeceptive
• plainspoken
• revealing
• openhearted
• revelatory
• clarifying
• free-spoken
• truthful
• honest
• trustworthy
• elucidative
• foursquare

beguiling

2 of 2

verb

present participle of beguile

1

as in fascinating

to attract or delight as if by magic

the magician effortlessly beguiled and amazed the children

Synonyms & Similar Words

• fascinating
• charming
• enticing
• enchanting
• captivating
• interesting
• bewitching
• intriguing
• alluring
• delighting
• seducing
• pleasing
• luring
• tempting
• magnetizing
• killing
• witching
• drawing
• disarming
• wiling
• pulling
• gratifying
• wooing
• entrancing
• arresting
• inviting
• appealing (to)
• beckoning
• enrapturing
• enthralling
• courting
• soliciting

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• offending
• revolting
• disgusting
• repelling
• annoying
• displeasing
• boring
• tiring
• wearying
• irking

2

as in deceiving

to cause to believe what is untrue

beguiled her into believing that yet another worthless item would enhance her life

Synonyms & Similar Words

• deceiving
• tricking
• fooling
• misleading
• teasing
• bamboozling
• kidding
• gulling
• deluding
• misguiding
• cozening
• humbugging
• suckering
• misinforming
• stinging
• juggling
• duping
• hoodwinking
• conning
• sucking in
• hoaxing
• bluffing
• cheating
• catching
• taking in
• snookering
• stringing along
• burning
• spoofing
• having on
• gammoning
• having
• gaffing
• snowing
• hornswoggling
• faking out
• doing a number on
• buffaloing
• leading one up the garden path
• pulling one's leg
• leading one down the garden path
• pulling the wool over one's eyes
• putting on
• defrauding
• swindling
• sticking
• shortchanging
• fleecing
• hustling
• bleeding
• rooking
• mulcting
• diddling
• chiselling
• flimflamming
• chiseling
• squeezing
• euchring
• skinning

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• revealing
• exposing
• uncovering
• debunking
• undeceiving
• unmasking
• telling
• disclosing
• showing up
• divulging
• unveiling
• disillusioning
• disabusing
• uncloaking
• disenchanting

3

as in tempting

to lead away from a usual or proper course by offering some pleasure or advantage

was beguiled by the promise of easy money as a drug dealer

Synonyms & Similar Words

• tempting
• luring
• seducing
• enticing
• persuading
• alluring
• betraying
• fascinating
• decoying
• enchanting
• baiting
• leading on
• soliciting
• charming
• inveigling
• captivating
• bewitching
• trapping
• ensnaring
• drawing in
• enmeshing
• entrapping
• meshing
• snowing
• snaring
• roping (in)
• magnetizing
• tangling
• catching
• immeshing
• wiling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• warning
• cautioning
• alerting
• warding (off)
• driving (away or off)
• turning away
• forewarning
• repulsing

Examples of beguiling in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The cycle of the gambler—from despair and lack to hope and reward—was endless, both frustrating and beguiling. —Victor Lodato, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024

Amick stars alongside James Spader as a beguiling beauty whom Spader is helpless before. —Jordan Crucchiola, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024

Compared with Xi’s rigid formalism and dependence on ritual and protocol, Jiang’s beguiling informality came from a completely different universe of leadership. —Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2022

Collaborating with the Chinese piano prodigy Lang Lang, Desplat delivers a flowing body of music that captures the violence of betrayal, the beauty of working through it, and the beguiling waltz of two people moving together through time. —Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2024