innocent
Americanadjective
-
free from moral wrong; without sin; pure.
innocent children.
- Synonyms:
- immaculate, spotless, impeccable, faultless, virtuous, sinless
- Antonyms:
- guilty
-
free from legal or specific wrong; guiltless.
innocent of the crime.
- Antonyms:
- guilty
-
not involving evil intent or motive.
an innocent misrepresentation.
-
not causing physical or moral injury; harmless.
innocent fun.
-
devoid (usually followed byof ).
a law innocent of merit.
-
having or showing the simplicity or naiveté of an unworldly person; guileless; ingenuous.
- Synonyms:
- artless, unsophisticated, naive, simple
-
uninformed or unaware; ignorant.
noun
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innocents
plural
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an innocent person.
-
a young child.
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a guileless person.
-
a simpleton or idiot.
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(used with a singular verb) Usually innocents. bluet.
adjective
-
not corrupted or tainted with evil or unpleasant emotion; sinless; pure
-
not guilty of a particular crime; blameless
-
free (of); lacking
innocent of all knowledge of history
-
-
harmless or innocuous
an innocent game
-
not cancerous
an innocent tumour
-
-
credulous, naive, or artless
-
simple-minded; slow-witted
noun
-
an innocent person, esp a young child or an ingenuous adult
-
a simple-minded person; simpleton
Synonym Usage
Innocent, blameless, guiltless imply freedom from the responsibility of having done wrong. Innocent may imply having done no wrong at any time, and having not even a knowledge of evil: an innocent victim. Blameless denotes freedom from blame, especially moral blame: a blameless life. Guiltless denotes freedom from guilt or responsibility for wrongdoing, usually in a particular instance: guiltless of a crime.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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quasi-innocentadjective
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superinnocentadjective
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uninnocentadjective
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innocentlyadverb
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quasi-innocentlyadverb
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superinnocentlyadverb
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uninnocentlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of innocent
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English, from Latin innocent- (stem of innocēns ) “harmless,” equivalent to in- in- 3 + nocēns present participle of nocēre “to harm”; see -ent; cf. noxious
Explanation
You may think your fluffy white cat is just an innocent, or harmless, little kitty, but she shows no mercy when attacking that toy mouse. Innocent is an adjective that describes someone or something that is not harmful or at least doesn’t cause harm on purpose. It can also be used when talking about a person who did not commit a crime. “Innocent until proven guilty” is a phrase that means people who have been accused of a crime should be considered innocent, or free of blame, unless a judge or jury decides that they are officially guilty.
Vocabulary lists containing innocent
Anti-Antonyms: Words Without Opposites
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"The Scholarship Jacket" by Marta Salinas
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For still others, 9/11 remains most powerfully a story about innocent lives lost and ordinary people behaving with extraordinary courage.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
There are also people who I suspect simply get stuck in the impossible space of wanting justice for three innocent children and finding no clear path to get it.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
“But today justice took a different form: setting aside a wrongful conviction and proclaiming a man factually innocent of attempted murder charges brought over a decade before.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
A lawyer for Sarris said he “is innocent of these charges and intends to fight them.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Maybe if she is just an innocent pedestrian—a tiny woman, out walking—she won’t raise any eyebrows, she thinks.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
"This land has paid a heavy price. It has seen many of its children buried. It has borne witness to the suffering of children and innocents," added the leader of the world's Roman Catholics.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
On the one hand, continued pressure harms innocents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
While most of its players are innocents, dubbed Faithfuls, Cumming surreptitiously chooses several to be Traitors.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2026
It also asked police to stop harassing innocents.
From BBC ● May 28, 2025
You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention; and, by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
