Definitions
Etymologies
- From the French word ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu (meaning “guileless”), originally from the Latin word ingenuus (meaning “ingenuous”). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“As always, the ingenue was a docile, saintly (with one slip) place-holder, but Elena Shaddow, who was the girl in The Light in the Piazza did her level best with her, and has a lovely, clear voice.”
“But you can bet they're wishing that their ingenue was a little less ripe and a lot more bashful:”
“Fifty years ago, that stage was the Met, the opera was Don Giovanni, and the ingenue was a 19-year-old soprano from the Bronx, Roberta Peters.”
“For me, getting away from playing the ingenue is a tremendous relief, because they're so shallow and they have no texture or depth, no lines to their face, and as a result they can be rather bland.”
“All exquisite, pineapple pants included, but the Laker's hat "ingenue" gets the prize!”
“As with Gestalt psychology's famous figure of the vase that is also two faces in profile, or the "ingenue" who can turn into a "hag," the alternative reading lurks — and becomes startlingly obvious once the figure-ground system is reversed though a perceptual shift.”
'Put to the Blush': Romantic Irregularities and Sapphic Tropes
“From several her lines, it's clear that in many ways she still sees herself as some kind of ingenue, even though she's in her early forties.”
“Only there will be a new 'ingenue' in Miss Malone's place.”
“Alice Eve, the kind of ingenue who makes your socks go up and down.”
“With dimples like weapons, the star of "An Education" plays a stronger, wiser kind of ingenue Gillibrand Narrows Gap a Bit in Match-Up Against Pataki in New York”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ingenue’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Words I Used to Know
Words that make you go "I know that word...what the heck does it mean?!?
pulchritude, sanguine, trenchant, picaresque, gloaming, perfidious, confabulation, epiphany, importune, fulminate, efficacious, maladroit and 111 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Loan words from French
gite, coq au vin, dernier cri, clique, hors d'œuvre, touché, naïve, coquette, bourgeois, contretemps, flâneur, film noir and 63 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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try to use now and then
exacerbate, inveterate, obviate, verbose, exasperate, disingenuous, squit, ingenue, Opiate, opioid, revile, decrepit and 14 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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Nightbloom's List
adumbrate, beatific, blandiloquent, caliginous, champagne, anointed, chatoyant, chiaroscuro, diffuse, dulcet, ebullient, efflorescence and 94 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ingenue.

colebert Camile Paglia word. Jan 31, 2008
seanahan Compare this to disingenuous. Nov 13, 2007
thinkcharlene Ms. Olivia de Havilland Feb 14, 2007