guileful
Full of tricks
Guileful means crafty or deceitful, skilled at using cunning to achieve one's ends.
A guileful person employs tricks, manipulation, or subtle deception rather than straightforward means: a guileful negotiator who always got the better deal, guileful maneuvering behind the scenes.
The word carries a negative connotation, suggesting slyness rather than honest cleverness.
Crafty and calculating
- calculatingColdly self-serving in strategy
- strategicDeliberately planned for advantage
- shrewdPractically clever, perceptive
- astuteMentally sharp, discerning
crafty · wily · artful · clever · sharp · savvy · resourceful · ingenious
Inclined to mislead others
- duplicitousDeliberately deceptive in nature
- dishonestInclined to deceive
- falseNot matching reality
- misleadingCausing false beliefs
insincere · treacherous · perfidious · fraudulent · untruthful · dissembling · two-faced · disingenuous
scheming
Crafty and calculating
- calculatingColdly self-serving in strategy
- strategicDeliberately planned for advantage
- shrewdPractically clever, perceptive
astute · crafty · wily · artful · clever · sharp · savvy · resourceful · ingenious · subtle
deceitful
Inclined to mislead others
- duplicitousDeliberately deceptive in nature
- dishonestInclined to deceive
- falseNot matching reality
misleading · insincere · treacherous · perfidious · fraudulent · untruthful · dissembling · two-faced · disingenuous · mendacious
ruse
Deliberate act of deception
- ployCalculated deceptive tactic
- schemeCalculated strategy, often secretive
- subterfugeDeliberate deception to conceal
stratagem · machination · gambit · feint · artifice · maneuver · trap · con · hoax · deception
- cunningcunning, craftiness, crafty, slyness, sly
- wickedevil, wicked, villainous, malicious, sinister
guilefulguileless
Free from deceit
artless · honest · sincere · straightforward · candid
guilefulinnocent
Free from moral wrong
naive · childlike · simpleminded · unworldly · impressionable