Know Your Next Word : guile
8. guile :
noun :
cunning, duplicity, artfulness
usage :
Jose used guile, not intelligence, to win the spelling bee. He cheated.
Stuart was shocked by the guile of the automobile mechanic, who has poked a hold in his radiator and then told him that it had sprung a leak.
To be guileless is to be innocent or native. Guileless and artless are synonyms.
The word beguile also means to deceive, but in a charming and not always bad way.
Clarence found Mary's beauty so beguiling that he did anything she asked of him.
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