facile

 
 
facile
 
adjective|FASS-ul
 
What It Means
 
Facile is a formal adjective that is used disapprovingly to describe something that is too simple, or that doesn’t show enough thought or effort. Facile can also be used for something done or achieved in a way that is considered too easy or that is easily accomplished or attained. It is sometimes used approvingly, however, for someone or something that works, moves, or performs well and very easily.
 
// This problem requires more than just a facile solution.
 
// After winning a facile victory over their archrivals, the team became the easy favorite to secure the championship.
 
// The local author has received numerous plaudits for being a wonderfully facile writer

***
Est. 1828

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facile
adjective
fac·;ile ;fa-s;l
Synonyms of facile
1
a
(1)
: easily accomplished or attained
a facile victory
(2)
: shallow, simplistic
I am not concerned … with offering any facile solution for so complex a problem
—T. S. Eliot
b
: used or comprehended with ease
c
: readily manifested and often lacking sincerity or depth
facile tears
2
archaic : mild or pleasing in manner or disposition
3
a
: ready, fluent
facile prose
b
: poised, assured
a facile lecturer
facilely
;fa-s;(l)-l;
 adverb
facileness
;fa-s;l-n;s
 noun


Did you know?
Facile comes from the Latin facilis, meaning "easy," and facere, "to make or do." The adjective can mean "easy" or "easily done," as befits its Latin roots, but it now often adds the meaning of undue haste or shallowness, as in "facile answers to complex questions."

Synonyms
superficial
shallow
Choose the Right Synonym for facile

easy, facile, simple, light, effortless, smooth mean not demanding effort or involving difficulty.

easy is applicable either to persons or things imposing tasks or to activity required by such tasks.

an easy college course
facile often adds to easy the connotation of undue haste or shallowness.

facile answers to complex questions
simple stresses ease in understanding or dealing with because complication is absent.

a simple problem in arithmetic
light stresses freedom from what is burdensome.

a light teaching load
effortless stresses the appearance of ease and usually implies the prior attainment of artistry or expertness.

moving with effortless grace
smooth stresses the absence or removal of all difficulties, hardships, or obstacles.

a smooth ride
Examples of facile in a Sentence
But in the less palmy days of their marriage and the final years of his life, Lennon produced (with Yoko's help) shallow, facile recordings that cannibalized his early work.
—Francine Prose, The Lives of the Muses, 2002
Melville shrank from atheism, and from all facile theisms.
—John Updike, Hugging the Shore, (1983) 1984
… I saw that my old enemy was dead, Amy [Lowell], noble Amy. How I despised myself then for my facile self-pity and for my failure to die—how she seemed to have worsted me once again.
—Conrad Aiken 14 May 1925, in Selected Letters of Conrad Aiken,  1978
This problem needs more than just a facile solution.
He is a wonderfully facile writer.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Both prove facile stabs at deepening their male counterparts.
—J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 14 Mar. 2025
The inability to perceive this limitation is amplified for LLMs as their facile use of human language suggests to humans that all other brain capabilities () exist in addition to the Communicating function, as this is the foundational cognitive basis set for all humans.
—Marcus Weldon, Newsweek, 24 Feb. 2025
In a sea of facile banalities, his lyrics take us back to the golden era of Spanish language singer/songwriters, but set to contemporary arrangements that place them squarely in 2025.
—Ingrid Fajardo, Billboard, 14 Feb. 2025
The pure simplicity of 2-D games like Tecmo Bowl, Pac-Man, and even the raging kitchen fires within The Sims, are relics of a more facile era in gaming.
—David John Ch;vez, The Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2025

Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin facilis "easy, accommodating, nimble," from fac-, stem of facere "to make, bring about, perform, do" + -ilis -ile entry 1 — more at fact

First Known Use
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)

Time Traveler
The first known use of facile was in the 15th century
See more words from the same century