facile

adjective

fac·​ile ˈfa-səl 

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

ˈfa-sə(l)-lē 

adverb

facileness

ˈfa-səl-nəs 

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

• one-dimensional
• shallow
• skin-deep
• superficial

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

The benefit of all of this, of course, is a shift toward recognizing, at least in the zeitgeist, the seemingly facile truth: that moms have identities and desires beyond being moms. —Cady Lang, TIME, 24 May 2024

The commentary on social media is mostly facile, although a humiliating trick played on Nikki is devilishly funny and some of the flashback-recap sequences make zippy use of online video. —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 2024

So to look at anything going on during a pandemic, the shifts that have occurred, as an acceleration of existing trends is facile. —Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 15 Dec. 2020

The facile idea was that, as Kara Swisher pointed out on her podcast, Musk was potentially the one person who could solve Twitter’s long-term profitability problem. —Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2022

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)

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Kids Definition

facile

adjective

fac·​ile ˈfas-əl 

1

a

: easily done, handled, or achieved

b

: overly simple : shallow entry 1 sense 2

c

: easily experienced or displayed and often insincere

2

: working, moving, or performing with skill and ease : fluent

a facile writer

facilely

-ə(l)-lē 

adverb