Word.ws English Dictionary

ingenu

ingenu noun: an innocent, unsophisticated, naive, wholesome boy or young man.

Noun

ingenu (plural ingenus)

  1. (rare) An innocent, unsophisticated, naive, wholesome boy or young man.
    • Even a casual reader of the philosophic tale will have met, in the array of types on parade-an oft-repeated "naïf" (who was anything but naive), at least one famed "candide," and several "ingénus."1946 September, Dorothy M. McGhee, “The Conte Philosphique Evolves Its Solitaire”, in PMLA, volume 61, number 3, page 752
    • Swift, it might be noted, has used this technique, but with "reverse English." Instead of a fine central intelligence, he has set up at the core of his work his favorite ingénu, an "I" who egregiously identifies himself with the very abuses that Swift is attacking.1951 June, Robert C. Elliott, “Swift's Tale of a Tub: An Essay in Problems of Structure”, in PMLA, volume 66, number 4, page 44
    Antonyms:
    homme fatal

Examples of ingenu in a sentence

  • You seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners.1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, Viking, page 18:
  • The innocent childlike nature of the Ingenu is perhaps his most obvious and charming characteristic and has been much noted. ...1991, George Austin Test, Satire: Spirit and Air, University Press of Florida, page 205:

Antonyms of ingenu

Forms of ingenu

pluralingenus
alternative formingénu

Origin of ingenu

Borrowed from French ingénu (“guileless”), especially as used by Voltaire in L'Ingénu, from Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”). Doublet of ingenuous.

Questions about ingenu

What does ingenu mean?
Ingenu means an innocent, unsophisticated, naive, wholesome boy or young man.
How do you use ingenu in a sentence?
You seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners.
What part of speech is ingenu?
Ingenu is a noun.
What is the plural of ingenu?
The plural of ingenu is ingenus.

Words near ingenu in the dictionary

  1. Ingenito
  2. Ingenitos
  3. ingenius
  4. ingenol
  5. ingenols
  6. ingenu
  7. ingenue
  8. ingenues
  9. ingenui
  10. ingenuine
  11. ingenuities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ingenu (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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