ingenuous

1 of 2

adjective (1)

in·gen·u·ous in-ˈjen-yə-wəs

-yü-əs

Synonyms of ingenuous

: showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness

her ingenuous thirst for experience—Christopher Rawson

: lacking craft or subtlety

ingenuous in their brutality

obsolete : noble, honorable

ingenuously adverb

ingenuousness noun

ingenuous

2 of 2

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.

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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Adjective

By the water’s edge, her insecure 25-year-old son, Konstantin (Kodi Smit-McPhee), is mounting a post-apocalyptic play in which his enduring love, ingenuous country girl Nina (Emma Corrin), can act. —Hayley Maitland, Vogue, 12 Feb. 2025