Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use innocent in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Innocent means free from guilt, sin, or immorality. Example: “I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for all this.”

Examples of innocent by meaning

adjectiveFree from guilt, sin, or immorality.

  • I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for all this.
  • The situation certainly looked bad, but it turned out that everything was innocent.

adjectiveWithout wrongful intent; accidental or in good faith.

  • He didn't mean anything by it; it was an innocent mistake.
  • The child's innocent question revealed the embarrassing truth in front of everyone.

adjectiveNot harmful; innocuous; harmless; benign.

  • Although an innocent murmur is not an obstacle to participation in sports and exercise, a pathologic murmur may necessitate restrictions on the child's physical activity.2006, David J. Driscoll, Fundamentals of Pediatric Cardiology, page 43

adjectiveLacking (something), or knowledge of it.

  • The Abbey was innocent of anything so up to date as central heating.1929, Agatha Christie, chapter 17, in The Seven Dials Mystery
  • By all reports, they are entirely innocent of manners of any kind.1983, Judith Martin, Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, page xvii

adjectiveLawful; permitted.

  • an innocent trade

adjectiveNot contraband; not subject to forfeiture.

  • innocent goods carried to a belligerent nation

nounOne who is innocent, especially a young child.

  • The slaughter of the innocents was a significant event in the New Testament.
  • We were asked to strike that impossible balance between being innocents and whores.1991 February 11, Jennifer Justice, “Farewell Lavender Hearts”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 29, page 9

More sentences with innocent

  • We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.From the entry come
  • Don’t come the innocent victim. We all know who’s to blame here.From the entry come
  • The allegations tarred his name, even though he was found innocent.From the entry tar
  • I did not register that look to mean anything more than an innocent, friendly smile.From the entry register
  • Innocent people who are arrested become fodder for the justice system.From the entry fodder
  • Without the real murderer's confession, an innocent person could be jailed.From the entry confession
  • He was labeled as a racist for his otherwise innocent remark.From the entry labeled
  • The police put a price on his head after he killed four innocent women.From the entry price on someone's head
  • The jury was unaccountably slow to reach a verdict. He was clearly innocent.From the entry unaccountably
  • The defendant was not innocent, but he was let go with time served.From the entry time served
  • He claimed he was innocent, but nothing could be further from the truth.From the entry nothing could be further from the truth
  • The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.From the entry wreak
  • The jury concurs with the case put forward by the defence lawyer, that the defendant is undoubtedly innocent.From the entry concur
  • It is my considered opinion that the accused is innocent.From the entry considered
  • The newspapers incriminated the innocent man unjustly.From the entry incriminate
  • The postexecution DNA test showed he was innocent.From the entry postexecution
  • You've got it all wrong: I'm innocent of this crime!From the entry get wrong
  • Don't play the innocent with us.From the entry play
  • Valjean was in the unenviable position of either living with the knowledge an innocent would suffer for his crime or revealing his true identity and going back to prison.From the entry unenviable
  • We were frustrated that our seeming innocent choice for a team name was rejected by the game. Apparently somewhere in the name is a word that the algorithm doesn’t like.From the entry like
  • There is nothing innocuous, innocent or whimsical in a Totalitarian society, at least in the public sphere.2020 September 25, Charles Hugh Smith, The Road to Nowhere: Whatever Can't Be Politicized Ceases to Exist. From the entry whimsical
  • While the questions of the “sea lion” may seem innocent, they’re intended maliciously.2019 March 7, Amy Johnson, Berkman Klein Centier. From the entry sealioning
  • Anons beat innocent possums to death, while anonettes get stood up on dates.2017 September 22, u/ScrotalKahnJr, “Anon goes on tinder date”, in Reddit, r/4chan. From the entry anonette
  • These are innocent sons provoked to consider an invidious scenario by the boofish behaviour of a few.2016 February 24, Janelle Saffin, “USDP Government & Presidential spokesperson’s silly and shocking statement on Section 59(f)”, in Mizzima. From the entry boofish
  • Were we innocent as farm animals and in danger of being misherded?2013, Hob Broun, Inner Tube: A Novel. From the entry misherd
  • “Innocent girl on nite out wiv pals in hossie having stiched up after being glassed.2012, Cary Smith, Or Not To Be, page 197. From the entry hossie
  • My advice is to presume the Nike-clad cleaner innocent and take personal stuff home, especially minging sportswear.2011, Lucy Kellaway, The Answers: All the office questions you never dared to ask, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 82. From the entry minging
  • In short, terms are not always innocent of values and problems.2011, Carter Lindberg, “Chapter 1: History, Historiography, and Interpretations of the Reformations”, in The European Reformations, 2nd…. From the entry Counter-Reformation
  • In response, senders started using botnets (networks of otherwise innocent computers).2010 November 20, “Long life spam”, in The Economist. From the entry botnet

Meaning of innocent

  1. adjective Free from guilt, sin, or immorality.
  2. adjective Bearing no legal responsibility for a wrongful act.
  3. adjective Without wrongful intent; accidental or in good faith.

Full definition of innocent

Questions about innocent in a sentence

How do you use innocent in a sentence?
Innocent is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for all this.”
What is a short sentence with innocent?
“an innocent trade”
What does innocent mean?
Innocent means free from guilt, sin, or immorality.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: innocent (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use innocent in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/innocent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.