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.

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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

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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

A Labour MP who resigned as a Cabinet Office minister has said he was "naive" and "so sorry" in his first full interview since leaving his role.

From BBC

Brown, from Manchester, said people - including herself before her injury - could be "naive" when it came to what accessibility looked like, yet subtle changes such as replacing buttons with poppers was "not rocket science".

From BBC

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

But if we were naive to believe executives when they initially said AI would merely help us, then perhaps we ought to be skeptical of their new, job-killer narrative, too.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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