1
as in cunning
skill in achieving one's ends through indirect, subtle, or underhanded means
a shady salesman who usually relies on a combination of quick thinking and guile
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in deception
the inclination or practice of misleading others through lies or trickery
a person so full of guile he can't even be trusted to give you the correct time of day
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of guile
These assertions go beyond guile, opportunism, cruelty, despair, or self-preservation.
—
Hussein Agha, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
Former Heat Fades The 37-year-old right-hander, who broke in with Atlanta as NL Rookie of the Year in 2011, lacks his old velocity but compensates with a combination of guile and experience.
—Dan Schlossberg, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But the sensational framing obscures what's really happening: design flaws dressed up as intentional guile.
—ArsTechnica, 13 Aug. 2025
Opening pages show Toews’ characteristic wit and guile squaring off against extraordinary pain.
—Literary Hub
july 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for guile
Hussein Agha, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
Former Heat Fades The 37-year-old right-hander, who broke in with Atlanta as NL Rookie of the Year in 2011, lacks his old velocity but compensates with a combination of guile and experience.
—Dan Schlossberg, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But the sensational framing obscures what's really happening: design flaws dressed up as intentional guile.
—ArsTechnica, 13 Aug. 2025
Opening pages show Toews’ characteristic wit and guile squaring off against extraordinary pain.
—Literary Hub
july 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for guile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for guile
Noun
-
Federico Marchetti, the Italian fashion entrepreneur, is a master of sprezzatura—the courtier’s art of cloaking ambition and cunning in an air of guileless nonchalance.—
John Seabrook,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
-
But Israeli cunning, buoyed by remarkable intelligence capabilities and precision targeting, has damaged the group.—
Sean Durns,
The Washington Examiner,
26 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Everything can be used as a tool for good and to build, or for bad and destruction and deception.—
Marc Malkin,
Variety,
14 Oct. 2025
-
The question now is whether our ability to detect deception can evolve as fast as the tools that create it.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
And with that comes deceit and manipulation.—
Lori A Bashian,
FOXNews.com,
12 Oct. 2025
-
The 2022 push for Measure B, which enabled this year’s approval of new city trash policies, was built on deceit about how much the fees would be.—
U T Editorial Board,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Of course, the retort is that this would be irritating and exasperating to be continually deluged with alerts about AI deceptiveness.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
As investigators dig deeper, more disturbing secrets emerge, including financial fraud, addiction, mysterious deaths and corruption.—
Samantha Stutsman,
PEOPLE,
18 Oct. 2025
-
Western Alliance also is alleging fraud in its bad loans.—
Kevin Stankiewicz,Matthew J. Belvedere,
CNBC,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Both had a bad drinking habit by then, and when Martha confronted Willie about his cheating, a fight broke out.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
11 Oct. 2025
-
In addition to delivering high-quality search results, this method hinders search-engine cheating; artificially boosting your web page by putting up a thousand pages linking to it won’t accomplish much if those pages have low status.—
Jack Murtagh,
Scientific American,
11 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Guile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/guile. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share