naively

American  

[nah-eev-lee] / nɑˈiv li /

Or naïvely

adverb

1. in a way that shows a lack of experience, judgment, or information.

   I'll just stretch the contents of my talks into a book, I thought naively, but after three years of hard work I’m still far from completing a manuscript.

2. in a way that shows simplicity of character and the absence of artificiality or sophistication.

   The ancient historian Herodotus marks a transitional stage in cultural anthropology, between naively artless chronicle writing and scientific research.

3. in a way not influenced by previous participation in a scientific experiment or awareness of its real purpose.

   Participants behave naively and more naturally if they don’t know the true nature or objective of the study.

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Other Word Forms

• unnaively
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of naively

naive ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, Lohrmann said AI has been a naively optimistic passive-income coach.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026

We thought, perhaps naively, now that we’ve done it, now that there’s a proof of concept, it’s going to be much clearer.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026

"There's an assumption we naively hold that when we want children it will just happen but that's not a privilege we're all granted so it's made me more compassionate in that regard."

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026

And yet it represented a floor which I naively believed democratic accountability could not fall beneath without consequence.

From Salon • Mar. 8, 2026

After all, the numbers in the sequence get closer and closer to zero; naively, one would guess that this would ensure that the sum remains finite.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• foolishly
• stupidly