# innocent

/ˈɪnəsənt/ (US) · /ˈɪnəsənt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/innocent
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. not guilty of a crime

adjective · CEFR B1

not guilty of a particular crime or bad action.

For teachers: bearing no legal or moral responsibility for a specific wrongful act.

- The jury found the man innocent after seeing the new evidence.
- The defendant was declared innocent of all charges after DNA evidence conclusively proved he was not at the scene of the crime.

Usage: Often used with the preposition 'of'.

### 2. not harmful

adjective · CEFR B2

not intended to cause harm or upset, even if it does.

For teachers: lacking harmful intent or malicious motive; innocuous in nature.

- It was an innocent mistake, and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
- What began as an innocent remark about the weather was unfortunately misinterpreted as a sarcastic critique of the host's garden.

### 3. naive or inexperienced

adjective · CEFR B2

having little experience of the world and trusting people too easily.

For teachers: lacking worldly experience, sophistication, or knowledge of evil.

- She was young and innocent, believing everything she read online.
- His innocent perspective on international politics was often dismissed by his more cynical and experienced colleagues.

### 4. a person who is not guilty

noun · CEFR C1 · Formal

a person, especially a child, who has no experience of bad things or has done nothing wrong.

For teachers: an individual who is free from guilt or sin, frequently used in the plural to refer to victims of war or disaster.

- The war caused the deaths of many thousands of blameless innocents.
- The documentary highlights the tragic plight of the innocents caught in the crossfire of the regional conflict.

## Examples

- The jury found the man innocent of all charges.
- The lawyer worked for years to prove that his client was innocent and had been framed.
- While the legal system presumes a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, the court of public opinion often reaches a verdict long before the trial even begins.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.