Definition of Naive

1. Adjective. Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience. "This naive simple creature with wide friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances"


2. Adjective. Of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style. "Primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking"
Exact synonyms: Primitive
Category relationships: Beaux Arts, Fine Arts
Similar to: Untrained

3. Adjective. Inexperienced.
Similar to: Innate, Unconditioned, Unlearned
Derivative terms: Naiveness

4. Adjective. Lacking information or instruction. "Lamentably unenlightened as to the laws"
Exact synonyms: Unenlightened, Uninstructed
Similar to: Uninformed
Derivative terms: Naiveness

5. Adjective. Not initiated; deficient in relevant experience. "He took part in the experiment as a naive subject"
Exact synonyms: Uninitiate, Uninitiated
Similar to: Inexperienced, Inexperient
Derivative terms: Naiveness, Uninitiate

Definition of Naive

1. Adjective. Lacking experience, wisdom, or judgement. ¹

2. Adjective. (context: of art) Produced in a simple, childlike style, deliberately rejecting sophisticated techniques. ¹

3. Adjective. (alternative spelling of naive) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Naive

1. lacking sophistication [adj NAIVER, NAIVEST] : NAIVELY [adv] / a naive person [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Naive

nainsells
nainsook
nainsooks
naira
nairas
nairobi sheep disease
nairobi sheep disease viruses
nairovirus
nairoviruses
nairu
nairus
nais
naissance
naissances
naissant
naive (current term)
naive T-cell
naive art
naive falsificationism
naive realism
naiveite
naiveites
naively
naiveness
naivenesses
naiver
naives
naivest
naivete
naivetes

Literary usage of Naive

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Present Philosophical Tendencies: A Critical Survey of Naturalism, Idealism by Ralph Barton Perry (1912)
"Such a view is naive Natural- . ,. J , , naturalistic, in that it ... Buchner's universality to these concepts of physical Monism of science; and naive, ..."

2. The World's Great Classics by Timothy Dwight, Julian Hawthorne (1899)
"UPON naive AND SENTIMENTAL POETRY THERE are moments in our life when we feel a kind of love and tender respect for nature in plants, minerals, animals, ..."

3. Essays, Philosophical and Psychological: In Honor of William James by William James, Columbia University (1908)
"... naive REALISM; WHAT IS IT? Br DICKINSON S. the most recent tendencies to be observed here and there in metaphysical speculation there is one at least ..."

4. Psychology, general and applied by Hugo Münsterberg (1914)
"THE AIMS OF PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER I THE INTEREST IN PSYCHOLOGY naive Interest in ... In short, the naive curiosity which turned first to toys and tools, ..."

5. The Problem of Knowledge by Douglas Clyde Macintosh (1915)
"In the present chapter we shall deal only with the antecedents of this new realism, including under this caption, first, naive realism and the "natural ..."

6. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1911)
"... positiviste or the tlon. naive credulity of Anselm. He was induced by practical motives and theology was the means to his ideas of reform. ..."

7. A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts by George Saintsbury (1917)
"been claimed for this, that here, for the first time, is a distinction made out between ancient and modern The naive . , .. . . . .. , , . and Senti- poets, ..."

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