naive

See also: naïve

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French naïve, feminine form of naïf, 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:
      I am sixteen going on seventeen, I know that I'm naive
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, 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.

Usage notes
  • Google Ngram Viewer shows naive to be historically more common than naïve but the latter has gained popularity after year 2000, reaching the popularity of the other spelling.[1] However, since Google Ngram Viewer results for older books are derived from OCR of scans, which very often make mistakes for diacritics, this estimate is likely substantially inaccurate.
  • Spellings in dictionaries:
    • naive is covered by Merriam-Webster,[2] AHD,[3] Collins,[4] Macmillan,[5] Cambridge[6] and OED.[7]
    • naïve is covered by Merriam-Webster (as a variant),[2] AHD,[3] Collins (as a variant),[4] Macmillan (as a variant),[5] Cambridge (as a variant),[6] OED (as a variant),[7] and Century 1911.[8]
  • GPO manual states that "Diacritical marks are not used with anglicized word" and mentions naive and naivete.[9]
  • Guardian and Observer style guide indicates naive, naively, and naivety with no accent.[10]
  • The diaeresis in naïve is there to indicate the vowel is pronounced in a separate syllable.[11]
  • Since naïve is a feminine adjective in French, the masculine naïf (or naif) is occasionally used in English when describing a man, but naive/naïve is most often treated as gender-neutral. Naif or naïf is also the noun form in English.

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.

References
  1. naive, naïve at Google Ngram Viewer
  2. “naive”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  3. “naive”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
  4. “naive”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  5. “naive” (US) / “naive” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
  6. “naive”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
  7. “naive”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  8. “naive”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
  9. U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, govinfo.gov
  10. Guardian and Observer style guide, theguardian.com
  11. What's a Diaeresis? | Merriam-Webster

Further reading

Anagrams

Danish

Adjective

naive

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

Esperanto

Etymology

From naiva +‎ -e.

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

Adverb

naive

  1. naively

German

Pronunciation
  • Audio(file)

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. definite natural masculine singular of naiv
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