Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Uncorrupted by evil, malice, or wrongdoing; sinless: an innocent child.
- adj. Not guilty of a specific crime or offense; legally blameless: was innocent of all charges.
- adj. Within, allowed by, or sanctioned by the law; lawful.
- adj. Not dangerous or harmful; innocuous: an innocent prank.
- adj. Candid; straightforward: a child's innocent stare.
- adj. Not experienced or worldly; naive.
- adj. Betraying or suggesting no deception or guile; artless.
- adj. Not exposed to or familiar with something specified; ignorant: American tourists wholly innocent of French.
- adj. Unaware: She remained innocent of the complications she had caused.
- adj. Lacking, deprived, or devoid of something: a novel innocent of literary merit.
- n. A person, especially a child, who is free of evil or sin.
- n. A simple, guileless, inexperienced, or unsophisticated person.
- n. A very young child.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Free from any quality that can cause physical or moral injury; harmless in effect; innoxious.
- Free from any moral wrong; not tainted with sin; upright; pure: as, innocent children; an innocent action.
- Free from legal or specific wrong; guiltless: as, to be innocent of crime.
- Free from illegality: as, innocent goods carried to a belligerent.
- Artless; naïve.
- Simple; wanting knowledge or sense; imbecile; idiotic.
- Small, modest, and pretty: applied to children and flowers.
- n. An innocent person, especially a little child, as free from actual sin.
- n. An artless or simple person; a natural; a simpleton; an idiot.
- n. Same as innocence, 6.
- In pathology, benign; not malignant.
Wiktionary
- adj. Free from guilt, sin, or immorality.
- adj. Bearing no legal responsibility for a wrongful act.
- adj. Naive; artless.
- adj. Harmless in intent.
- adj. Having no knowledge (of something).
- adj. Lacking (something).
- n. Those who are innocent; young children.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not harmful; free from that which can injure; innoxious; innocuous; harmless.
- adj. Morally free from guilt; guiltless; not tainted with sin; pure; upright.
- adj. Free from the guilt of a particular crime or offense.
- adj. Simple; artless; foolish.
- adj. Lawful; permitted.
- adj. Not contraband; not subject to forfeiture.
- n. An innocent person; one free from, or unacquainted with, guilt or sin.
- n. An unsophisticated person; hence, a child; a simpleton; an idiot.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking intent or capacity to injure
- adj. lacking in sophistication or worldliness
- adj. free from evil or guilt
- adj. free from sin
- n. a person who lacks knowledge of evil
- adj. completely wanting or lacking
- adj. (used of things) lacking sense or awareness
- adj. not knowledgeable about something specified
Etymologies
- Latin in- ("not") + nocēns, present participle of noceō ("to hurt"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin innocēns, innocent- : in-, not; see in-1 + nocēns, present participle of nocēre, to harm; see nek-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Many innocent acts _occasion_ evil, and in such case all I am bound to ask myself before doing such _innocent act_, is, "Shall I occasion, on the whole, more harm or good.”
“This innocent rhetoric, from the realm of religious-ethical balderdash, appears _a good deal less innocent_ when one reflects upon the tendency that it conceals beneath sublime words: the tendency to _destroy life_.”
“This twisted notion that we would only observe our own laws, our own Constitution, our own Enlightenment Age ideals-if there was something in it for us, if we could somehow profit by it - appalls me. brought to mind something in a talk given by Sabine Willet (one of the attys for the Uighur and a commerical bankruptucy lawyer who felt compelled by the injustice to do something - while DOJ litigators felt compelled to lie to courts and continue to block habeas requests for men who their own files showed were innocent and had been abused and tortured bc of governmental policy that * no one leaves GITMO innocent*)”
“The phrase "innocent bystander" is ironic; in reality, bystanders are as guilty as perpetrators when it comes to perpetuating the patterns of violence in this country.”
The Huffington Post: Lisa Firestone: Bullying And Beyond: How To Stop Violent Behavior
“Sure, some innocent, and I use the term innocent loosely because it would be hard for a priest to be innocent in that environment of poverty, occassionly get shot unintensionly.”
“Maybe I believe in what you called the innocent until proven guilty bit.”
“The Homeland Security secretary said most of those incursions are what he called innocent, and he declared reporting on the issue has been overblown and not helpful.”
“Some have maintained that we should conform to the ways of the world somewhat — at least, enough to show that we can enjoy the world and religion too; and that we make religion appear repulsive to unconverted souls by turning our backs upon what they call their innocent amusements.”
“However, documents submitted to the Texas Comptroller's Office lacked the word "innocent.”
“Abe Mashal, a 30-year-old dog trainer and former Marine from St. Charles, Ill., who was not allowed on a Chicago-to-Spokane flight in April because he had sent what he described as innocent e-mails to a Muslim cleric agents were watching.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘innocent’.
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Society
social work, coverage, affiliate, social security, ambulance, clinic, health, insurance, emergency, mail, letter, envelope and 101 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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Virgins
All and any to do with those precious hymenated...
sacrifice, altar, white, cherry, lily, pure, angelic, innocent, vestal, unicorn, undefiled, pristine and 8 more...
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I'm Not There
Favorite words from Bob Dylan and the movie "I'm Not There"
raincoat, dreamer, create, poet, trapeze, drainpipes, visions, highway, harmonicas, rain, tombstone, geometry and 8 more...
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classic695's Words
delighted, elated, energetic, excited, enthusiastic, elevated, happy, contented, fine, pleased, satisfied, compassionate and 168 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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My Words
Words that I use regularly and consider mine.
zen, poser, savvy, angst, flustered, bitter, whatsoever, farfetched, indeed, scenario, inevitable, salvage and 134 more...
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Expressions
(Facial)
pained, pitiful, reproachful, annoyed, dismissive, excited, eager, spiteful, contemptuous, passive, calm, nervous and 155 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o..., abject,utterly ho... and 2228 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., dispensing of all..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o... and 2229 more...
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babe
girlie, blonde, brunette, innocent, damsel, bombshell, bomb, sexbomb, coed, bimbo, bitch
Tweets
Looking for tweets for innocent.
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