naive adj

1 marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience; "a teenager's naive ignorance of life"; "the naive assumption that things can only get better"; "this naive simple creature with wide friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances" [syn: naif] [ant: sophisticated]

2 lacking experience of life; "a callow youth of seventeen" [syn: callow, inexperienced, unsophisticated]

3 lacking sophistication [syn: unsophisticated]

English

Alternative spellings

• naif
• naïf
• naïve

Etymology

From etyl fr naïve, from etyl la nativus.

Pronunciation

• /naɪiv/

Adjective

1. Lacking experience, wisdom, or judgement.

   Surely you're not naive enough to believe adverts!

2. In the context of "of art": Produced in a simple, childlike style, deliberately rejecting sophisticated techniques.

   I've always liked the naive way in which he ignores all the background detail.

Synonyms

• see

Antonyms

• see

Derived terms

• naively
• naivete
• naivety
• naiveness

Naïve may refer to:

• Naïveté, a French loanword indicating the state of lacking experience, understanding or sophistication
• Naïve art, art created by untrained artists, or artists aspiring to naïve realisations
• Naïve algorithm, a very simple solution to a problem that has a very high time- or memory- complexity
• Naïve realism, a theory of perception thought to be representative of most people's understanding and method of interpretation of their perceptions
• Naive set theory, a non-axiomatic approach to set theory, in mathematics
• Naïve (medical term), a patient who has not previously used a particular drug (e.g., an opioid) during a particular course of treatment, and therefore has no tolerance; or someone who has not been exposed previously to an antigen
• Naïve (company), also known as 0pus111, a recording label featuring artists such as Jorge Chaminé
• Naïve (album), industrial rock group KMFDM's fifth album, released in 1990
• Naïve (The Kooks song), a 2006 song by British post-punk rock band The Kooks, featured on their debut album
• Naïve (band), a Russian punk rock band.

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