naive
Syllables: na·iveUK/naɪˈiːv//naɪˈiv/
naive adjective: lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.
Adjective
naive (comparative naiver or more naive, superlative naivest or most naive)
- Lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.
- Whether by design or driven by the force of circumstances, they have always directed their main effort toward gaining the support of this "elite," while the more conservative groups have acted, as regularly but unsuccessfully, on a more naive view of mass democracy and have usually vainly tried...1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 418
- I am sixteen going on seventeen, I know that I'm naive1965, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”, in The Sound of Music
- Not having been exposed to something.
- Animals entering shelters are either (a) immunologically naïve and susceptible to infection and development of disease if exposed to pathogens; (b) already immune […]2011, Lila Miller, Kate Hurley, Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters
- Produced in a simple, childlike style, deliberately rejecting sophisticated techniques.
- By 1921 when Miró painted his key work, naive painting had been recognized by the avantgarde art world as a genre in its own right.2006, Janis Mink, Joan Miró, →ISBN, page 33
- Intuitive; designed to follow the way ordinary people approach a problem.
- We have experiments of running our matching algorithm and a naive matching algorithm for such a term tree and a tree, and have compared the performance of the two algorithms.2007, Takao Terano, Huan Liu, Arbee L.P. Chen, Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, →ISBN
Noun
naive (plural naives)
- A naive person; a greenhorn.
- As a seasoned woman—of nineteen—I felt it was my place to tell each of these naïves that such plans were easier made than followed.2010, Daphne Oz, The Dorm Room Diet
- In other words, they'd buy securities from these naives for 55 and sell them similar securities for 65. In plain English, they'd pay $550 per $1,000 bond and turn right around and sell them similar stuff for $650.2018, King Midas, Stupid Brokers - Stupid Clients
naive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
naive in Hindi
- lacking experience, wisdom, or judgement
- अल्हड़ alhaṛ
naive in Tamil
- எளிமையான, சூதறியா, வெகுளி
naive in Marathi
- निष्कपट, भोळा
naive in Urdu
- naive
- نادان nādān
More languagesFewer languages
- naive in Bengali
- কাঁচা
- naive in Kannada
- ಅಕೃತ್ರಿಮ, ನಿಷ್ಕಪಟ, ಋಜುವಾದ, ಮುಗ್ಧ
- naive in Punjabi
- الہڑ állaṛ, سدھا siddhā
- naive in Gujarati
- ઘોઘો ghogho, સાફ sāph
- naive in Odia
- ନିଷ୍କପଟ
- naive in Nepali
- निष्कपट
- naive in Arabic
- سَاذَج sāḏaj
- naive in Indonesian
- naif
- naive in Persian
- ساده لوح sâde-lowh, خام xâm, ببو babu
- naive in Thai
- ไร้เดียงสา rái-diiang-sǎa, นาอีฟ
- naive in Vietnamese
- ngờ nghệch, ngây thơ, nai
Examples of naive in a sentence
- But they fed what they saw as raw, unguarded essentialism into work that was anything but naive.
- But Grayling’s enthusiasm and conviction should not be confused with naive whiggishness.
- On introduction of the parasite into immunologically naive mouse populations, the impact was dramatic (Fig. 4.9).
Synonyms of naive
23 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of naive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | naiver |
| comparative | more naive |
| superlative | naivest |
| superlative | most naive |
| alternative form | naïve |
| alternative form (nonstandard) | naiive |
| Noun | |
| plural | naives |
Origin of naive
Borrowed from French naïve, feminine form of naïf, from Latin nātīvus (“native, natural”). Doublet of native.
Words formed from naive
Phrases with naive
Words that rhyme with naive
45 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- eve
- grieve
- Kharkiv
- breve
- conceive
- neve
- Pishchiv
- weave
- keeve
- Neave
- Piskiv
- reeve
- screeve
- skeeve
- aggrieve
- beleave
- French leave
- greave
- interweave
- perceive
- reave
- seave
- sheave
- shrieve
- sleave
- steeve
- steve
- take French leave
- Abib
- beeve
- deceive
- dreve
- Dutch leave
- eave
- gneeve
- khedive
- nieve
- peeve
- preconceive
- rebelieve
- reperceive
- thieve
- transceive
- we've
- Yves
Questions about naive
- What does naive mean?
- Naive means lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.
- What is naive in Hindi?
- Naive in Hindi is अल्हड़ (alhaṛ). See Naive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is naive?
- Naive can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce naive?
- Naive is pronounced /naɪˈiːv/ (UK).
Words near naive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: naive (page history and authors); naive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); naive (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); نادان (Urdu) (page history and authors); naive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); naive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); الہڑ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ઘોઘો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); naive (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); naive (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-naive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “naive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/naive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.