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naive

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. 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.

/ 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

noun

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

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Usage Note

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.

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Derived Forms

• naˈiveness, noun
• naˈively, adverb

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Other Words From

• na·ive·ly adverb
• na·ive·ness noun
• un·na·ive adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of naive1

First recorded in

1645–55;

from French, feminine of naïf, Old French naif “natural, instinctive,” from Latin nātīvus native

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Word History and Origins

Origin of naive1

C17: from French, feminine of naïf, from Old French naif native, spontaneous, from Latin nātīvus native

, from nasci to be born

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Example Sentences

Yet it was a tricky line to walk, and, in hindsight, perhaps even naive to believe the attraction could stand apart from a film that has long been out of circulation.

In her final days at Harrods, Helen remembers a new girl starting who seemed "so young and naive", like she once had been.

“Maybe this was naive of us, or naive of me, but I never thought that the city and the mayor would chose somebody like McDonnell to be chief.”

The governor pushed back on the notion that Trump would thwart his plans, but said he wasn’t naive about “this being a very challenged environment” if Trump won.

When Obama was elected, I was naive about political power.