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NAIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not initiated; deficient in relevant experience
Example:
he took part in the experiment as a naive subject
Synonyms:
naive; uninitiate; uninitiated
Classified under:
Similar:
inexperienced; inexperient (lacking practical experience or training)
Derivation:
naiveness (lack of sophistication or worldliness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking information or instruction
Example:
lamentably unenlightened as to the laws
Synonyms:
naive; unenlightened; uninstructed
Classified under:
Similar:
uninformed (not informed; lacking in knowledge or information)
Derivation:
naiveness (lack of sophistication or worldliness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Inexperienced
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
innate; unconditioned; unlearned (not established by conditioning or learning)
Derivation:
naiveness (lack of sophistication or worldliness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style
Example:
primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking
Synonyms:
naive; primitive
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
untrained (not disciplined or conditioned or made adept by training)
Domain category:
beaux arts; fine arts (the study and creation of visual works of art)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience
Example:
this naive simple creature with wide friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances
Synonyms:
naif; naive
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
childlike; dewy-eyed; round-eyed; simple; wide-eyed (exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity)
credulous (showing a lack of judgment or experience)
fleeceable; green; gullible (naive and easily deceived or tricked)
ingenuous; innocent (lacking in sophistication or worldliness)
simple-minded (lacking subtlety and insight)
unsophisticated; unworldly (not wise in the ways of the world)
Also:
credulous (disposed to believe on little evidence)
uninformed (not informed; lacking in knowledge or information)
unworldly (not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations)
Antonym:
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
Derivation:
naiveness (lack of sophistication or worldliness)
Context examples:
Immunologically important lymphocyte that is not thymus-dependent, is either short-lived and naive or long-lived and of memory phenotype, and resembles the bursa-derived lymphocyte of birds in that it is responsible for the production of immunoglobulins.
(B-Lymphocyte, NCI Thesaurus)
Electroporation with the adjuvants CD40L and TLR4 allows for the generation of mature and active DCs; electroporation with CD70 provides a costimulatory signal to CD27+ naive T cells thereby supporting T-cell proliferation and inhibiting T-cell apoptosis.
(Autologous TriMix-DC Melanoma Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)
His conceptions seemed naive to her, though she was often fired by his daring flights of comprehension, whose orbit-path was so wide among the stars that she could not follow and could only sit and thrill to the impact of unguessed power.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The choicest tapestries which the looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the battles of Judas Maccabaeus were set forth, with the Jewish warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole, as the naive artists of the day were wont to depict them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Of her daughters, the eldest, Amy, was rather little: naive, and child-like in face and manner, and piquant in form; her white muslin dress and blue sash became her well.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He had never been in a bank in his life, much less been in one on business, and he had a naive and childlike desire to walk into one of the big banks down in Oakland and fling down his indorsed check for forty dollars.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
In truth, they were children together, so far as love was concerned, and they were as naive and immature in the expression of their love as a pair of children, and this despite the fact that she was crammed with a university education and that his head was full of scientific philosophy and the hard facts of life.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
