facile means easy; contemptibly easy. It carries an Arena rating of 1662, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, facile ranks #2,401 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,120 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #5,782 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #6,027 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
facile is pronounced /ˈfæs.aɪl/.
Why “facile” is a great word
Achieved or performed with apparent ease, often to the point of seeming simplistic, superficial, or lacking depth. From Middle French facile (“easy”), from Latin facilis (“easy to do, easy, doable”), from facere (“to do, make”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put”). First attested in English c. 1484 in a translation by William Caxton. Unlike “specious” (which traffics in deceptive plausibility) or “arduous” (which strains against genuine difficulty), “facile” glides over complexity without the intent to deceive so much as the failure to engage. It is the glib answer that silences a profound question, the formulaic plot that forgoes authentic surprise, or the sweeping generalization that erases nuance for a tidy conclusion—a betrayal of the effortful making from which its name derives.
Etymology
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.
adj
- Easy; contemptibly easy.
- Amiable, flexible, easy to get along with.e.g.“His facile disposition made him many friends.”
- Effortless, fluent (of work, abilities etc.).e.g.“Her writing was facile and articulate.”
- Lazy, simplistic, superficial (especially of explanations, discussions etc.).e.g.“He arrived with a facile understanding of her works.”
- Of a reaction or other process, taking place readily.e.g.“Decarboxylation of beta-keto acids is facile.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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