ingenuous

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“
He saw her just as she was--ingenuous, and ignorant if you like--except that she was pure.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Lacking in cunning, guile, or worldliness; artless.
  2. adjective Openly straightforward or frank; candid. See Synonyms at naive.
  3. adjective Obsolete Ingenious.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples

  • The men, ingenuous, lively young fellows from Saxony and Prussia, received me very kindly, and the variety of their different services and their readiness to talk about them, gave me a good insight into the inner relationship between the landed aristocracy and their retainers. —  Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel
  • He was very fond of Nephew George; well recognizing the ingenuous, wise and loyal nature of the young man. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
  • A humane ingenuous Princess; little negligences in toilet or the like, if such occur, even these set her off, so ingenuous are they. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
  • He saw her just as she was--ingenuous, and ignorant if you like--except that she was pure. —  The Pretty Lady
  • The child Pansie, frisking with her kitten — a more simple, ingenuous, and self-centred, but also less sympathetic nature than the Pearl of Hester Prynne — may have been studied from Hawthorne's daughter Rose. —  The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
 

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Ingenuous has been looked up 637 times, favorited once, listed 33 times, and commented on 3 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

artless ·  candid ·  frank ·  guileless ·  naive ·  childlike ·  amiable ·  boyish ·  manly ·  womanly ·  unaffected ·  disinterested
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin ingenuus, honest, freeborn; see genə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. French ingénu = Spanish Portuguese Italian ingenuo, from Latin ingenuus, native, free-born, noble, upright, frank, candid, from ingignere (Old Latin ingenere), ingenerate: see ingenite.
 

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/ɪnˈdʒɛnjuəs/
by American Heritage

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