1
[ adjective ] marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience

Synonyms

naif

Examples

"a teenager's naive ignorance of life" "the naive assumption that things can only get better" "this naive simple creature so eager to believe appearances"

Used in print

("Editorials"...)

As the civic temper rises , the more naive citizens begin to play soldier - but the guns are real .

(High Fidelity, 11:10...)

The already faded pastel charms of the naive music itself vanish entirely in Fistoulari 's melodramatic contrasts between ultra vehement brute power and chilly , if suave , sentimentality .

(Edward P. Lawton, "Northern Liberals and Southern...)

I am naive , they say , to make use of such words .

(J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)

Whatever the merits of its intent , Utopian communism is far too naive , far too crude , to suit any modern socialist or communist .

2
[ adjective ] lacking experience of life

Examples

"a callow youth of seventeen"

Related terms

immature

3
[ adjective ] lacking sophistication

Synonyms

unsophisticated

Related terms

artless

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