naive

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See also: naïve

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French naïve, from Latin nativus (“native, natural”). Doublet of native.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /naɪˈiːv/, /nɑːˈiːv/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːv

Adjective

naive (comparative more naive, superlative most naive)

  1. Lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.
    • 1965, Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics and music), “Going on Seventeen”, in The Sound of Music‎[1]:
      I am sixteen going on seventeen, I know that I'm naive
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, via PC, →ISBN, →OCLC, scene: Krogan: Genophage Codex entry:
      The salarians believed the genophage would be used as a deterrent, a position the turians viewed as naive. Once the project was complete, the turians mass produced and deployed it. The krogan homeworld, their colonies, and all occupied worlds were infected.
  2. Not having been exposed to something.
    • 2011, Lila Miller, Kate Hurley, Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters
      Animals entering shelters are either (a) immunologically naïve and susceptible to infection and development of disease if exposed to pathogens; (b) already immune […]
  3. (of art) Produced in a simple, childlike style, deliberately rejecting sophisticated techniques.
    • 2006, Janis Mink, Joan Miró, →ISBN, page 33:
      By 1921 when Miró painted his key work, naive painting had been recognized by the avantgarde art world as a genre in its own right.
  4. (computing) Intuitive; designed to follow the way ordinary people approach a problem.
    • 2007, Takao Terano, Huan Liu, & Arbee L.P. Chen, Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, →ISBN:
      We have experiments of running our matching algorithm and a naive matching algorithm for such a term tree and a tree, and have compared the performance of the two algorithms.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

naive (plural naives)

  1. A naive person; a greenhorn.
    • 2010, Daphne Oz, The Dorm Room Diet:
      As a seasoned woman—of nineteen—I felt it was my place to tell each of these naïves that such plans were easier made than followed.
    • 2018, King Midas, Stupid Brokers - Stupid Clients:
      In other words, they'd buy securities from these naives for 55 and sell them similar securities for 65. In plain English, they'd pay $550 per $1,000 bond and turn right around and sell them similar stuff for $650.

Further reading

Anagrams

Danish

Adjective

naive

  1. inflection of naiv:
    1. definite singular
    2. plural

Esperanto

Etymology

From naiva +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [naˈive]
  • Rhymes: -ive
  • Hyphenation: na‧i‧ve

Adverb

naive

  1. naively

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

naive

  1. inflection of naiv:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

naive

  1. definite singular/plural of naiv

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

naive

  1. definite singular/plural of naiv

Swedish

Adjective

naive

  1. (deprecated template usage) definite natural masculine singular of naiv
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