as in innocent
free from guilt or blame
if the jury acquits him, he is guiltless in the eyes of the law
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Recent Examples of guiltless
In any year, in any culture, there are no antagonists (save for Nazis) better suited as action cinema heavies; rooting against child trafficking lowlifes is moral, easy, and best of all, a completely guiltless pleasure.
—
Andy Crump,
IndieWire,
15 June 2026
Chick lit was flippant and fizzy and fun, above all, as effervescent and guiltless as a vodka soda.
—
Hillary Busis,
Vanity Fair,
4 May 2026
And how many guiltless prisoners there are here!
—
Alexei Navalny,
The New Yorker,
11 Oct. 2024
Many fans found its generally joyous treatment of Miranda’s guiltless affair with Che, a nonbinary comedian, in the first season off-putting.
—
Lili Loofbourow,
Washington Post,
21 June 2023
So hats (halos?) off to you, Mr. Woolverton, and may the binge-watching, pint-guzzling, relatively guiltless movie marathons commence.
—
Susie Neilson,
The Cut,
21 Aug. 2017
Andy Crump,
IndieWire,
15 June 2026
Chick lit was flippant and fizzy and fun, above all, as effervescent and guiltless as a vodka soda.
—
Hillary Busis,
Vanity Fair,
4 May 2026
And how many guiltless prisoners there are here!
—
Alexei Navalny,
The New Yorker,
11 Oct. 2024
Many fans found its generally joyous treatment of Miranda’s guiltless affair with Che, a nonbinary comedian, in the first season off-putting.
—
Lili Loofbourow,
Washington Post,
21 June 2023
So hats (halos?) off to you, Mr. Woolverton, and may the binge-watching, pint-guzzling, relatively guiltless movie marathons commence.
—
Susie Neilson,
The Cut,
21 Aug. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for guiltless
Adjective
-
All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
-
That law predates the much wider United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which took effect in 1994, giving ships the right of innocent passage through any country's territorial waters without paying a fee.
Adjective
-
Leaders should restore clear end-to-end accountability, align on-call and incident response with the teams that ship the code, and rebuild a blameless culture.
-
Schlittler wasn’t blameless in that, committing a throwing error on a pickoff play in the first inning.
Cite this Entry
“Guiltless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/guiltless. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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