facile
Syllables: fac·ile/ˈfæs.aɪl//ˈfæs.əl/
facile adjective: easy; contemptibly easy.
Adjective
facile (comparative more facile, superlative most facile)
- Easy; contemptibly easy.
- […] as he that is benummed with cold, sits still shaking, that might relieve himselfe with a little exercise or stirring, doe they complaine, but will not use the facile and ready meanes to doe themselves good; […]1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for...
- Amiable, flexible, easy to get along with.
- His facile disposition made him many friends.
- Effortless, fluent (of work, abilities etc.).
- Her writing was facile and articulate.
- we can learn the impression that he made upon a stranger and a foreigner at this period, thanks to the facile pen of Fannu Burney.1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 54
- Lazy, simplistic, superficial (especially of explanations, discussions etc.).
- He arrived with a facile understanding of her works.
- There is a facile view that our green commitments – to tackling climate change, avoiding air and water pollution, protecting natural habitats – are an obstacle to growth. The message of the commodity markets is surely different.2012 May 3, Chris Huhne, “It's green growth or nothing”, in The Guardian
- Of a reaction or other process, taking place readily.
- Decarboxylation of beta-keto acids is facile.
facile meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
facile in Tamil
- ஆற்றொழுக்கான, இசைவார்ந்த, எளிய, ஒழுகு நயமுடைய
facile in Urdu
- آسان, عمل پیرا, سلیس
facile in Bengali
- অত্যন্ত সহজ, অগভীর
facile in Malayalam
- നിസ്സാരമായ, സുകരമായ, ഇണക്കമുള്ള, അനുകൂലമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- facile in Kannada
- ಸುಲಭ sulabha
Examples of facile in a sentence
- "Discipline," Jorge Julio Saavedra was repeating, "is more necessary to me than to other more facile writers.1974, Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul, New York: Pocket Books, page 54:
- A facile and persuasive writer, he also turned out countless newspaper articles on Russian aims in Central Asia and how best these could be thwarted.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 372:
Forms of facile
| comparative | more facile |
|---|---|
| superlative | most facile |
Origin of facile
Borrowed from Middle French facile, from Latin facilis (“easy to do, easy, doable”), from Latin facere (“to do, make”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put”) Compare Spanish and Portuguese fácil (“easy”), Catalan fàcil, Romanian facil. First use appears c. 1484 in a translation by William Caxton.
Words formed from facile
Words that rhyme with facile
Questions about facile
- What does facile mean?
- Facile means easy; contemptibly easy.
- What is facile in Tamil?
- Facile in Tamil is ஆற்றொழுக்கான, இசைவார்ந்த, எளிய. See Facile meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use facile in a sentence?
- "Discipline," Jorge Julio Saavedra was repeating, "is more necessary to me than to other more facile writers.
- What part of speech is facile?
- Facile is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce facile?
- Facile is pronounced /ˈfæs.aɪl/ (UK).
Words near facile in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: facile (page history and authors); facile (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); facile (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); facile (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); facile (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಸುಲಭ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-facile.wav, En-us-facile.ogg.
Cite this entry: “facile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/facile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.