guileless

[ gahyl-lis ]

adjective

1. free from deception or slyness; sincere and straightforward:

   No matter the situation, she was always transparent, guileless, and above any petty manipulative ploys.

2. lacking awareness of the world and worldly things; innocent or naive:

   He agreed to this crafty proposal, being guileless, and soon found himself betrayed and in trouble.

ˈguileless

/ ˈɡaɪllɪs /

adjective

1. free from guile; ingenuous

Derived Forms

• ˈguilelessness, noun
• ˈguilelessly, adverb

Other Words From

• guile·less·ly adverb
• guile·less·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of guileless¹

First recorded in 1720–30; guile + -less

Example Sentences

Casting the bubbly, adorable Feldstein opposite the prosthetically monstrosified Paulson and Owen is like casting a guileless little bunny as the final girl in a creature feature.

From Time

A professional writer’s prose is never guileless or innocent.

From Washington Post

I was guileless, eager to take risks, a catamaran racing breakneck through every channel I encountered.

From Washington Post

In a town populated by guileless, soft-hearted idealists, Terry is refreshingly complex—ruthless in advancing his own material interests but also sincerely committed to righting the historical wrongs perpetrated against his people.

From Time

Ada is guileless and candid with a natural storytelling manner that’s immediately engaging.

From Washington Post

At its most pejorative, the term describes a uniquely disposable kind of young gay man: Hairless, guileless, witless.

From The Daily Beast

She is, in the words of former Reagan operative Jeffrey Lord, “a guileless, fevered Marxist.”

From The Daily Beast

It puts you in touch with your guileless goals and essential desires.

From The Daily Beast

And then, as in this 1972 letter to James Ivory, he is touchingly vulnerable and guileless.

From The Daily Beast

As guileless, though as self-reliant, gentlewomen as sequestered England could produce.

From Project Gutenberg

In spite of her sharpened wits, Mrs. Kaye smiled radiantly into Isabel's guileless eyes.

From Project Gutenberg

He was thirty but looked little over twenty, and his large limpid blue eyes were as guileless as a child's.

From Project Gutenberg

The guileless Connie saw a pink mass in the dim shadows opposite her.

From Project Gutenberg

The leopards came and sat near the houses as guileless as children; the boars snorted and ran into the rice fields to hide.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• unsophisticated