guileful

adjective

Definition of guilefulnext
1
as in cunning
clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means tried to fix the game with a guileful plot to sabotage the other team's bats, but the umpire caught them

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deceptive
given to or marked by cheating and deception received a guileful answer when I asked the dealer if the used car had ever been in a collision

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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 guileful Bruno Guimaraes and Lucas Paqueta played guileful defence-splitting passes. — James Horncastle, New York Times, 20 June 2026 One is to emphasize Iago—the guileful, insinuating convincingness of this malicious supervillain, who works on Othello to the point where any reasonable man would be deceived and fooled and worked into a rage that can lead to such a catastrophe. — David Frum, The Atlantic, 17 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for guileful
  1. cunning
  2. deceptive
  3. cute
  4. fraudulent
  5. slick
  6. shady
  7. subtle
  8. crooked
Adjective
  • That doesn't enable cunning and unprincipled men to subvert the power of the people.
    — Lori A Bashian , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 30 June 2026
  • For decades, humans mined antibiotic molecules from microbes and tweaked them to develop new drugs, staying ahead of evolution’s cunning countermeasures.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 26 June 2026
Definition of cunning
Adjective
  • Shadow fleet vessels disguise their identity and purpose through a broad range of deceptive activities, including spoofing their locations and destinations.
    — Zita Ballinger Fletcher, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • The complaint alleged deceptive advertising and other misconduct.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 29 June 2026
Definition of deceptive
Adjective
  • Berries, given their naturally tiny nature, are a super cute choice.
    — Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 3 July 2026
  • The pair have to find their friends (JJ included) which leads to a cute game of peekaboo.
    — Parents, Parents, 3 July 2026
Definition of cute
Adjective
  • All three Republican candidates apparently hired the same signature gathering firm to collect signatures, many of which appear to have been fraudulent.
    — Peter Lucas, Boston Herald, 2 July 2026
  • However, because agentic systems can execute actions independently, an error can become a severe operational failure, such as authorizing fraudulent transactions or deleting mission-critical databases.
    — Barney Krishnan, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
Definition of fraudulent
Adjective
  • However, these benefits can’t be fully enjoyed if you’re left with flat and slick strands.
    — Ariana Yaptangco, Glamour, 5 July 2026
  • The hair at the crown is smoothed back but not slick—in fact, there’s a decent amount of volume up top—with virtually no visible part.
    — Marci Robin, Allure, 2 July 2026
Definition of slick
Adjective
  • The weather service also cautions the heat index is calculated for shady areas only.
    — Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 3 July 2026
  • That makes these networks valuable for people trying to hide mass scraping, fake ad clicks, account attacks or other shady activity.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2026
Definition of shady
Adjective
  • Obviously there’s a resemblance but in a really subtle and tasteful way.
    — Reece Andavolgyi, InStyle, 4 July 2026
  • Your reward will be the sight of a tiny pale point with a subtle blue-green tint.
    — Jamie Carter, Space.com, 3 July 2026
Definition of subtle
Adjective
  • Better known among seasoned riders as the Triple Nickel, the route makes for one of the most crooked roads in the Midwest, if not the country.
    — Condé Nast Traveler, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 July 2026
  • There’ll be something else to keep the crooked numbers away, don’t worry.
    — Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 2 July 2026
Definition of crooked

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Cite this Entry

“Guileful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/guileful. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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