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- Dictionaryin·gen·u·ous/inˈjenyəwəs/
adjective
- 1. (of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting: "he eyed her with wide, ingenuous eyes"
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Ingenuous means showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness, or lacking craft or subtlety. It is often confused with ingenious, which means unusually inventive or clever. Learn more about the word history, synonyms, examples, and related articles.
INGENUOUS definition: 1. honest, sincere, and trusting, sometimes in a way that seems silly: 2. honest, sincere, and…. Learn more.
Ingenuous, on the other hand, is most commonly used to describe people—typically people considered naive or overly trusting, especially due to a lack of real-world experience. The related noun ingénue refers to a young, inexperienced person.
Ingenuous means innocent, trusting, and honest. It can also mean candid, frank, or straightforward. See synonyms, pronunciation, examples, and word origin of ingenuous.
Ingenuous means honest, sincere, and trusting, sometimes in a way that seems silly. Learn how to use this formal adjective with examples and translations in different languages.
adjective. characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious. “an ingenuous admission of responsibility” synonyms: artless. candid, heart-to-heart, open. openly straightforward and direct without reserve or secretiveness. undistorted. without alteration or misrepresentation. sincere. open and genuine; not deceitful. naif, naive.
adj. 1. Lacking in cunning, guile, or worldliness; innocent or naive: I'm not so ingenuous as to believe everything he says. See Synonyms at naive. 2. Straightforward or frank; candid: "I must be so ingenuous as to own that the accounts are not so certain as to the exact time and place of his birth" (Memoir of Martinus Scriblerus).
