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guile

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Sly or cunning deceit. It often suggests trickery used to mislead someone.

Detailed Definition
In older or literary English, guile means clever deceit or crafty dishonesty. Dunbar uses it in a serious moral sense in the line about paying a “debt” to human guile, linking the mask to social deception and forced concealment.
Example
Example in poetry:
“This debt we pay to human guile” treats guile as cunning, often morally suspect; Shakespeare’s villains repeatedly rely on guile rather than open force; “Her smile concealed the patient guile of revenge” makes deceit a dramatic motive; “Against the fox’s guile, the hens kept close to dawn” gives the noun a fable-like context
Additional Notes
The word “guile” in the quoted line is a literary term for deceit that some readers may need to look up.; Found in the poem, We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Also Known As
cunning deceit craftiness
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