Meaning
5 senses(derogatory, usually)Easy; contemptibly easy.
leicht, mühelos
Effortless, fluent (of work, abilities etc.).
Her writing was facile and articulate.
Lazy, simplistic, superficial (especially of explanations, discussions etc.).
He arrived with a facile understanding of her works.
Of a reaction or other process, taking place readily.
Decarboxylation of beta-keto acids is facile.
(archaic)Amiable, flexible, easy to get along with.
His facile disposition made him many friends.
- performing adroitly and without effort
- superficially impressive, but lacking depth and attention to the true complexities of a subject
- expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively
Examples
7 sentencesThe hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy.
It's not that your criticism is too controversial, but that it's facile.
The poem is facile.
The plot is facile.
That rhyme is facile.
deDieser Reim ist oberflächlich.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
Borrowed from Middle French facile, from Latin facilis (“easy to do, easy, doable”), fromBorrowed 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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
more facile, most facile| Comparative | more facile Lesson |
|---|---|
| Superlative | most facile Lesson |
regular
Synonyms
7 synonyms- superficially impressive, but lacking depth and attention to the true complexities of a subject:neatslick
- expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively:eloquentfluentsilversilver-tonguedsmooth-spoken
Word family
13 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form