Standard Lemma guide

guileful

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Full of guile; treacherously deceptive.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: guiled, ratlike, viperous, beguiling, deceitful, deceptious, deceptive, deceptory, fallacious, fraudful, fraudulent, mendacious, booky, dastardly, disleal, disloyal, double-crossing, double-dealing, double-faced, double-hearted, doublehearted, faithless, false, falseheart, false-hearted, guileful, hollow-hearted, illoyal, infidelitous, insidious, Judaslike, Judasly, nonfaithful, perfidious, proditorious, proditory, Punic, recreant, renegade, reptilian, reptitious, swike, traitorish, traitorlike, traitorly, traitorous, traitorsome, treacherous, treachersome, trothless, unfaithful, unleal, unloyal, unsteadfast, untrue, viperish

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

marked by skill in deception

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • cunning men often pass for wise
  • deep political machinations
  • a foxy scheme
  • a slick evasive answer
  • sly as a fox
  • tricky Dick
  • a wily old attorney

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: crafty, cunning, dodgy, foxy, knavish, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, wily

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English gileful, gilful, equivalent to guile + -ful.

Across languages

Translations

10 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: коварен (kovaren) — full of guile
  • Bulgarian: измамнически (izmamničeski) — full of guile
  • Finnish: kavala — full of guile
  • Icelandic: táldrægur — full of guile
  • Icelandic: svikull — full of guile
  • Icelandic: fláráður — full of guile
  • Icelandic: flár — full of guile
  • Macedonian: лу́кав (lúkav) — full of guile
  • Macedonian: ко́варен (kóvaren) — full of guile
  • Macedonian: изма́мнички (izmámnički) — full of guile