innocence

Noun

innocence (countable and uncountable, plural innocences)

1. Absence of responsibility for a crime, tort, etc.
   • Her attorney managed to convince the jury of her innocence.

   Synonyms:

   unguilt

   Antonyms:

   guilt, blameworthiness, culpability, guiltiness, noninnocence, uninnocence

2. Lack of understanding about sensitive subjects such as sexuality and crime.
   • In his innocence, he offered the stranger to bring the package to Paris, never suspecting it contained drugs.
   • Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 9, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   naivety, unworldliness, purity

3. Lack of ability or intention to harm or damage.
   • Tests have demonstrated the innocence of this substance.
   • His unruly hair was slicked down with water, and as Jessamy introduced him to Miss Brindle his face assumed a cherubic innocence which would immediately have aroused the suspicions of anyone who knew him.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 96

   Synonyms:

   harmlessness, innocuity

   Antonyms:

   harmfulness, nocence

4. (obsolete) Imbecility; mental deficiency.

   Synonyms:

   idiocy, moronity