question help: I need some help with a word - Help.com

Well ambivelent (spelling?) is an emotion when you are feeling two totally inreconcilable things… such as horrified amazement and impressed.
But I doubt that would go with a smile ;-)

devious
uneasy

What’s the dominant feeling? Impressed or guilty of being caught?

hmmm well aside from saying he displayed a tantalized smirk I wouldn’t really know how to put it.

Shrewd seems to be a good choice. Astute might also work.

We need an english major in here to help you out with this one !

Arcane or esoteric might fit as well.

He is trying to describe a type of smile. I can’t think of anything all that good.

That’s why I’m suggesting adjectives? Just plug a “smile”, “smirk”, “grin”, etc. onto any of these.

Forgive me Mr. P but I was a history major I don’t even know what an adjective is hahaha :-)
I know how to write good sentences but don’t ask me how to properly spell a word (that is what spell checker is for) or what an adjective or noun or adverb is because I couldn’t tell you one from another :-)

khyron32 wrote:
Forgive me Mr. P but I was a history major I don’t even know what an adjective is hahaha :-)
I know how to write good sentences but don’t ask me how to properly spell a word (that is what spell checker is for) or what an adjective or noun or adverb is because I couldn’t tell you one from another :-)

Haha, no worries.

Me worry ???? I accept my short comings hehehe

charmed, bewitched, fascinated, dumbfounded

would a phrase work? e.g. dumbfounded smile with a hint of satisfaction
or a puzzled smile with a hint of astonishment

ha ha ha - this is funny. How about instead of a smile there is a nod…an almost imperceptable nod of mutual understanding….or it could just be a rueful grin…rueful doen’t necssarily imply impressed…but it doesn’t not imply that either.

Is it the same kind of smile that you see on a villian that meets a worthy foe?

Let see if this gets us anywhere…

We need to put a smile on a “caught out” situation.
We also need to be amazed that they have figured it out!
All in one word. Tough one. But food for thought.

I thought of two words, smirk and simper…but thats not good enough.
Anyway, here they are :

smirk : an insolent smile expressing feelings such as superiority, self-satisfaction, or conceit.

simper : transitive verb to say something while smiling in an affected, coy, and usually irritating way

“he smiled in a uneasy but excited way. Carlos had figured him out so easily, this was going to be more fun than I thought”

how about wry or bemused

I know you are looking for one word…

How about “I smiled, astounded.” or “I smiled, Flabbergasted”

I think this shows that if you want to write for a wide audience, then the use of a single word looks unlikely, as no one here knows it.

ha ha - I know how you feel though…there is definitley a word. Some kind of Columbo reference!

a knowing smile