naive

American  

[nah-eev] / nɑˈiv /

Or naïve

adjective

1. having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous.

   She's so naive she believes everything she reads.

   He has a very naive attitude toward politics.

2. having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous.

   Synonyms:

   plain, open, candid, guileless, artless, unaffected, simple

   Antonyms:

   artful, sophisticated

3. having or marked by a simple, unaffectedly direct style reflecting little or no formal training or technique.

   valuable naive 19th-century American portrait paintings.

4. not having previously been the subject of a scientific experiment, as an animal.

---

naive British  

/ naɪˈiːv /

adjective

1. 1. having or expressing innocence and credulity; ingenuous

   2. ( as collective noun; preceded by the )

      only the naive believed him

2. artless or unsophisticated

3. lacking developed powers of analysis, reasoning, or criticism

   a naive argument

4. another word for primitive

---

noun

1. rare a person who is naive, esp in artistic style See primitive

Usage

This word is spelled with a dieresis over the i (ï) in French, indicating that it is a separate vowel sound. Many people retain this spelling when writing in English.

Other Word Forms

• naively adverb
• naiveness noun
• unnaive adjective

Etymology

Origin of naive

First recorded in 1645–55; from French, feminine of naïf, Old French naif “natural, instinctive,” from Latin nātīvus native

Example Sentences

"Pakistan could be susceptible to allegations that it was naive," he says of that scenario.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

I mean, this could be naive, but I feel 100% safe that you are never going to replicate an evening of stand-up at a nigtclub like that.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026

This movie makes the point, with a naive White man seeing to his horror what it meant to be Black in the South and really not understanding it.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

It would be naive to say that wasn’t an accelerant.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026

I realize that some naive sliver of me hoped that he was better than this.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

Related Words

• ignorant
• innocent
• simple
• sincere
• unsophisticated
• wide-eyed