ingenuous

1 of 2

adjective (1)

in·​gen·​u·​ous in-ˈjen-yə-wəs 

-yü-əs

1

a

: showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness

her ingenuous thirst for experience

—Christopher Rawson

b

: lacking craft or subtlety

ingenuous in their brutality

2

obsolete : noble, honorable

ingenuously adverb

ingenuousness noun

ingenuous

2 of 2

adjective (2)

obsolete

: ingenious

Did you know?

Ingenuous is most often used to describe someone who has a childlike innocence and openness. It should not be confused with ingenious, which typically describes someone who is unusually inventive or clever, or something made or done in an especially original or clever way. The words look very much alike, but sound different: remember that ingenuous sounds like its linguistic relation genuine, while ingenious sounds like genius—despite the fact that there is no etymological connection between those two. For more on this pair, read on.

Synonyms

Adjective (1)

• artless
• genuine
• guileless
• honest
• innocent
• naive
• naïve
• natural
• real
• simple
• sincere
• true
• unaffected
• unpretending
• unpretentious

Choose the Right Synonym for ingenuous

natural, ingenuous, naive, unsophisticated, artless mean free from pretension or calculation.

natural implies lacking artificiality and self-consciousness and having a spontaneousness suggesting the natural rather than the man-made world.

her unaffected, natural manner

ingenuous implies inability to disguise or conceal one's feelings or intentions.

the ingenuous enthusiasm of children

naive suggests lack of worldly wisdom often connoting credulousness and unchecked innocence.

politically naive

unsophisticated implies a lack of experience and training necessary for social ease and adroitness.

unsophisticated adolescents

artless suggests a naturalness resulting from unawareness of the effect one is producing on others.

artless charm

Examples of ingenuous in a Sentence

Adjective (1)

photographs that capture the ingenuous smiles of young children at play

the story of an ingenuous newcomer to the big city who outwits the slickers at their own game

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

There’s something soft about the play, a little ingenuous and underbrewed. —Sara Holdren, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024

And while some delusions of the self are less opportunistic and others feel more ingenuous, the tilt of reality to suit ourselves is nonetheless slippery. —Megan O’Grady, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020

All of this feels rather random, rather personal, rather ingenuous. —New York Times, 5 Nov. 2021

Jennifer Johnson Cano’s mezzo-soprano was smoothly plangent as Emilia; the tenor Pene Pati was a sweetly ingenuous Cassio. —New York Times, 22 May 2022

The underdog pick is Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), an ingenuous arriviste who, long-limbed and blunder-prone, provides much of the show’s comic relief. —Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2021

Heathcliff, of course, is the prime example, growing from an ingenuous child into a glowering adult who spins all the considerable evil ever done to him — much of it based on race and class — into justification for his long game of retribution. —Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2022

His greatest hope for the future, Meghan is a high school senior at a horsy boarding school in the Washington area and possibly the most ingenuous girl since Alice in Wonderland. —Ron Charles, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2022

Colman has become a go-to actor for masking pained personal histories behind either brittle snappishness or bluff affability; Reid’s ingenuous, old-soul charm is a winning foil for that defensive quality. —Guy Lodge, Variety, 28 July 2022

Word History

Etymology

Adjective (1)

Latin ingenuus native, freeborn, from in- + gignere to beget — more at kin

Adjective (2)

by alteration

First Known Use

Adjective (1)

1588, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Adjective (2)

1588, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

ingenuous

adjective

in·​gen·​u·​ous

in-ˈjen-yə-wəs

: showing innocent or childlike simplicity and straightforwardness

ingenuously adverb

ingenuousness noun