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beguiling

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,189 of 15,258neutral

Beguiling means charming in a way that may mislead. A beguiling smile, beguiling simplicity, beguiling but false.

The warning is built in — a beguiling argument is attractive and probably wrong, which is what separates the word from merely charming. Note guile beneath it: the verb beguile once meant simply to deceive, and the charm came later.

Definitions of beguiling

  1. 1adjectivebeguilingCharming in a way that may mislead.C1

    “She had a beguiling smile that made people trust her far too quickly.”

beguiling is a quality of charm.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    begilen

  2. English

    beguile

  3. English, today

    beguiling

beguile comes from Middle English begilen, begylen; equivalent to be + guile. Compare Middle Dutch begilen (“to beguile”). a doublet of bewile.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

beguiling in the wild

  • The poem's theme of beguiling female and bumbling male can be compared to "Last Looks at the Lilacs" and "Two Figures in Dense Violet Night".

    The Plot Against the Giant

  • A 2001 review of Songs for Any Taste in The Philadelphia Inquirer described it as"remind anyone within earshot of glittering talent" and that it was a "beguiling set".

    Songs for Any Taste

  • Using the ancient theme of a worthless woman beguiling powerful men, the film portrays the moral corruption of the nominally Catholic court and nobility under the Second Empire.

    Nana (1955 film)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.