1
as in genuine
free from any intent to deceive or impress others
photographs that capture the ingenuous smiles of young children at play
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2
as in naive
lacking in worldly wisdom or informed judgment
the story of an ingenuous newcomer to the big city who outwits the slickers at their own game
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Recent Examples of ingenuous
Diller soon struck a deal with Rupert Murdoch—then posing as an ingenuous newcomer to America—to buy Fox and merge it with Metromedia, a group of television stations owned by John Kluge.
—
Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 19 May 2025
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
There’s something soft about the play, a little ingenuous and underbrewed.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
Heathcliff, of course, is the prime example, growing from an ingenuous child into a glowering adult who spins all the considerable evil ever done to him — much of it based on race and class — into justification for his long game of retribution.
—Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2022
His greatest hope for the future, Meghan is a high school senior at a horsy boarding school in the Washington area and possibly the most ingenuous girl since Alice in Wonderland.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2022
Colman has become a go-to actor for masking pained personal histories behind either brittle snappishness or bluff affability; Reid’s ingenuous, old-soul charm is a winning foil for that defensive quality.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 28 July 2022
Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 19 May 2025
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
There’s something soft about the play, a little ingenuous and underbrewed.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
Heathcliff, of course, is the prime example, growing from an ingenuous child into a glowering adult who spins all the considerable evil ever done to him — much of it based on race and class — into justification for his long game of retribution.
—Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2022
His greatest hope for the future, Meghan is a high school senior at a horsy boarding school in the Washington area and possibly the most ingenuous girl since Alice in Wonderland.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2022
Colman has become a go-to actor for masking pained personal histories behind either brittle snappishness or bluff affability; Reid’s ingenuous, old-soul charm is a winning foil for that defensive quality.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 28 July 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ingenuous
Adjective
-
Algorithmic Literacy requires genuine technical comprehension of AI capabilities, constraints, and ethical implications.—
Cornelia C. Walther,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
-
But despite a certain staginess, and a tendency for the plot to suddenly stop to make way for the acting, Hedda is actually a genuine attempt to mine something new from the old text, a compelling fusion of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and Stephen Fry’s Bright Young Things.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Their attempts at political discourse often veered toward the group speaking in vague, naïve universalisms.—
Emma Madden,
Pitchfork,
4 Sep. 2025
-
At times on Saturday, Bremen were terribly naive, exhibiting all the fragility expected of a team built from inexperienced players.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Outside of health care and social assistance, a sector in which job growth seems to be unaffected by over-all trends, the downturn in hiring extended across large parts of the economy, with fewer than half of all private-sector industries adding jobs last month.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
-
The 2026 visa cap has already been reached, meaning current sponsorships are unaffected.—
Robert Alexander,
MSNBC Newsweek,
7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Unless more Democrats start being realistic, many more innocent people will unfortunately continue to suffer.—
Christopher Tremoglie,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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Ben Lewis Doherty, playing a boy named Sam whose life is upended by Robbie, is the show’s greatest innocent, a softhearted moppet who warns deer to be careful when crossing the street.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
But all friends need to be honest with each other, to tell each other home truths when it’s needed, to confront those awkward moments without fear of the reaction.—
Steve Sedgwick,
CNBC,
9 Sep. 2025
-
But when those larger firms start to adopt similar habits—open forums, early interventions, honest check-ins—things change fast.—
Stephan Lendi,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
With just a few chairs, a handful of tables and a simple tent, the setting was intimate but filled with love and intention.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
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And one of these, for those of us accustomed to British conventions but who follow the game in continental Europe, is the simple passage of time.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Early in the novel, Harold points out that authors are constantly looking for ways to bury their true beliefs in their text, rather than state them outright.—
Jeremy Gordon,
The Atlantic,
12 Sep. 2025
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Like many Stephen King stories, the truest horrors are the ones that exist in reality.—
James Grebey,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Paul and Julie have an open marriage; their relationship is as modern as their taste in architecture, and Carey, guileless to a fault, assumes that his friend won’t mind.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
22 Aug. 2025
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But Meg Stalter is not so much clueless as compassionately guileless.—
Anna Peele,
Rolling Stone,
10 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ingenuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ingenuous. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.
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