NAIVE
Dictionary entry overview: What does naive mean?
• NAIVE (adjective)
The adjective NAIVE has 5 senses:
1. marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience
2. of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style
3. inexperienced
4. lacking information or instruction
5. not initiated; deficient in relevant experience
Familiarity information: NAIVE used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
• NAIVE (adjective)
Meaning:
Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience
Synonyms:
naif; naive
Context examples:
a teenager's naive ignorance of life / the naive assumption that things can only get better / this naive simple creature with wide friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances
Similar:
unsophisticated; unworldly (not wise in the ways of the world)
simple-minded (lacking subtlety and insight)
ingenuous; innocent (lacking in sophistication or worldliness)
fleeceable; green; gullible (naive and easily deceived or tricked)
credulous (showing a lack of judgment or experience)
childlike; dewy-eyed; round-eyed; simple; wide-eyed (exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity)
Also:
uninformed (not informed; lacking in knowledge or information)
credulous (disposed to believe on little evidence)
unworldly (not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations)
Antonym:
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
Meaning:
Of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style
Synonyms:
naive; primitive
Context example:
primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking
Similar:
untrained (not disciplined or conditioned or made adept by training)
Domain category:
beaux arts; fine arts (the study and creation of visual works of art)
Meaning:
Inexperienced
Similar:
innate; unconditioned; unlearned (not established by conditioning or learning)
Meaning:
Lacking information or instruction
Synonyms:
uninstructed; unenlightened; naive
Context example:
lamentably unenlightened as to the laws
Similar:
uninformed (not informed; lacking in knowledge or information)
Meaning:
Not initiated; deficient in relevant experience
Synonyms:
uninitiate; uninitiated; naive
Context examples:
it seemed a bizarre ceremony to uninitiated western eyes / he took part in the experiment as a naive subject
Similar:
inexperienced; inexperient (lacking practical experience or training)
