innocent
- 01 B1 Intermediate
adj.not guilty of a particular crime or bad action.
adj.bearing no legal or moral responsibility for a specific wrongful act.
Simple“The jury found the man innocent after seeing the new evidence.”
In context“The defendant was declared innocent of all charges after DNA evidence conclusively proved he was not at the scene of the crime.”
UsageOften used with the preposition 'of'.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.not intended to cause harm or upset, even if it does.
adj.lacking harmful intent or malicious motive; innocuous in nature.
Simple“It was an innocent mistake, and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.”
In context“What began as an innocent remark about the weather was unfortunately misinterpreted as a sarcastic critique of the host's garden.”
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.having little experience of the world and trusting people too easily.
adj.lacking worldly experience, sophistication, or knowledge of evil.
Simple“She was young and innocent, believing everything she read online.”
In context“His innocent perspective on international politics was often dismissed by his more cynical and experienced colleagues.”
Antonyms - 04 C1 Advanced
n.a person, especially a child, who has no experience of bad things or has done nothing wrong.
n.an individual who is free from guilt or sin, frequently used in the plural to refer to victims of war or disaster.
Simple“The war caused the deaths of many thousands of blameless innocents.”
In context“The documentary highlights the tragic plight of the innocents caught in the crossfire of the regional conflict.”
Synonyms
Usage innocent people
From Middle English innocent, from Old French innocent, inocent, borrowed from Latin innocēns (“harmless, inoffensive”), from in- (“not”) + nocēns, present participle of noceō (“to hurt”). By surface analysis, in- (“not”) + nocent (“harmful; guilty”). Displaced native Old English unsċyldiġ.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.