ingenuous

American  

[in-jen-yoo-uhs] / ɪnˈdʒɛn yu əs /

adjective

1. free from reserve, restraint, or dissimulation; candid; sincere.

   Synonyms:

   guileless, open, straightforward, frank

2. artless; innocent; naive.

   Synonyms:

   unsophisticated

3. Obsolete. honorable or noble.

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ingenuous British  

/ ɪnˈdʒɛnjʊəs /

adjective

1. naive, artless, or innocent

2. candid; frank; straightforward

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Usage

What’s the difference between ingenuous and ingenious? Ingenious means clever or cleverly inventive or resourceful. Ingenuous means sincere or, perhaps more commonly, naive or innocent. Careful: ingenious sounds like genius (the two are often used in the same contexts and even come from the same root) but it’s not spelled ingenius. Ingenious is most often used in the context of ideas, inventions, and solutions considered clever for their inventiveness and resourcefulness. The related noun ingenuity refers to the quality of being ingenious—cleverness or inventiveness. Ingenuous, on the other hand, is most commonly used to describe people—typically people considered naive or overly trusting, especially due to a lack of real-world experience. The related noun ingénue refers to a young, inexperienced person. The adjective disingenuous is more commonly used than ingenuous and means insincere or falsely ingenuous—someone who’s described as disingenuous might be faking naiveté. Once upon a time, ingenious was used to mean ingenuous, but this is no longer the case. To remember the difference, remember that ingenious sounds like genius and is used in similar contexts—an ingenious idea might also be described as a genius idea. Just don’t forget the -ous ending in ingenious. The middle of ingenuous sounds like the beginning of genuine, and an ingenuous person is usually a genuine one—nothing about them is insincere or intended to hide who they really are. Here’s an example of ingenuous and ingenious used correctly in a sentence. Example: The ingenuous inventor signed away the rights to his ingenious new creation without realizing it. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between ingenuous and ingenious.

Commonly Confused

See ingenious.

Other Word Forms

• half-ingenuous adjective
• half-ingenuously adverb
• half-ingenuousness noun
• ingenuously adverb
• ingenuousness noun

Etymology

Origin of ingenuous

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin ingenuus “native, free-born, honorable, frank; (of studies or occupations) befitting a freeborn person, liberal,” equivalent to in- verb prefix + gen- (base of gignere “to bring into being”) + -uus adjective suffix; in- ², ingenious, -ous

Explanation

Someone who is ingenuous shows a childlike innocence, trust, and openness. One of the things kindergarten teachers value is the chance to work with kids while they're still relatively ingenuous — their open, trusting natures are a joy. Ingenuous is roughly synonymous with naive, and its antonym is disingenuous, which means "giving a false impression of being honest and sincere." Don't confuse the word ingenuous with the similarly spelled ingenious, which means "very smart or clever." Ingenuous is from Latin ingenuus "having the qualities of people born free, noble, honest, open."

Example Sentences

Less an ingenuous revelation of lofty self-insulation from such voters, then.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 20, 2025

But he has previously signaled his support for the coach, and his other comments on Monday reflected an ingenuous acceptance of Clement’s fraudulent narrative.

From Slate • Apr. 25, 2022

“There’s always been people that do ‘home-brew’ — trying to find newer, ingenuous ways of generating radio waves.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 31, 2019

Writing in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther found the movie “surprisingly broad and ingenuous, in the manner of early silent comedies,” identifying Sordi as “a student of the Mack Sennett school.”

From New York Times • Dec. 24, 2019

We know from a contemporary source that Chardin painted the youth “carefully from life and...tried hard to give him an ingenuous air.”

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson