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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"
Also: Credulous, Uninformed, Unworldly
Similar to: Childlike, Dewy-eyed, Round-eyed, Simple, Wide-eyed, Credulous, Fleeceable, Green, Gullible, Ingenuous, Innocent, Simple-minded, Unsophisticated, Unworldly
Derivative terms: Naiveness
Antonyms: Sophisticated
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"
3. Adjective. Inexperienced.
4. Adjective. Lacking information or instruction. "Lamentably unenlightened as to the laws"
5. Adjective. Not initiated; deficient in relevant experience. "He took part in the experiment as a naive subject"
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
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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