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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

naive.

Lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/naɪˈiːv/Received-Pronunciation/nɑːˈiːv/Received-Pronunciation/naɪˈiv/General-American/nɑˈiv/General-American
  1. Lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.

  2. Not having been exposed to something.

  3. Produced in a simple, childlike style, deliberately rejecting sophisticated techniques.

  4. Intuitive; designed to follow the way ordinary people approach a problem.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree French naïf French naïvebor. English naive Borrowed from French naïve, feminine form of naïf, from Latin nātīvus (“native, natural”). Doublet of native.

noun/naɪˈiːv/Received-Pronunciation/nɑːˈiːv/Received-Pronunciation/naɪˈiv/General-American/nɑˈiv/General-American
  1. A naive person; a greenhorn.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree French naïf French naïvebor. English naive Borrowed from French naïve, feminine form of naïf, from Latin nātīvus (“native, natural”). Doublet of native.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.