naive
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.trusting people too much or believing things too easily because you do not have enough experience of the world.
adj.demonstrating a lack of experience, wisdom, or informed judgement; often implies an idealistic but unrealistic view of the world.
Simple“It was naive of him to think that the strangers would return his lost wallet.”
In context“The young diplomat was criticized for his naive belief that a simple handshake could resolve decades of territorial conflict.”
Antonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
adj.describing art that is created in a simple, childlike way, often by someone who has not been formally trained.
adj.relating to or denoting a style of art that is deliberately simple and lacks conventional expertise in perspective or anatomy.
Simple“The museum has a beautiful collection of naive paintings by local farmers.”
In context“The exhibition explores the charm of naive art, highlighting how these self-taught painters captured rural life without the constraints of formal perspective.”
Antonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
adj.describing a simple way of solving a problem that does not use complex or advanced methods.
adj.referring to an algorithm or approach that is simple, direct, and lacks optimization or sophisticated heuristics.
Simple“A naive search might take hours, but a better program can do it in seconds.”
In context“While the naive implementation of the sorting algorithm is easy to code, its performance degrades significantly with larger datasets.”
SynonymssimpleunoptimizedAntonyms - 04 C2 Proficiency
n.a person who lacks experience or is too trusting.
n.an individual characterized by a lack of sophistication or worldly wisdom.
Simple“In the story, the young naive arrives in the big city with high hopes.”
In context“The protagonist is portrayed as a wide-eyed naive who is eventually hardened by the harsh realities of the political machine.”
Borrowed from French naïve, feminine form of naïf, from Latin nātīvus (“native, natural”). Doublet of native.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.