Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A naive, innocent girl or young woman.
  • noun The role of an ingénue in a dramatic production.
  • noun An actress playing such a role.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ingenuous, artless girl or young woman; a woman or girl who displays innocent candor or simplicity; specifically, such a character represented on the stage, or the actress who plays it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An ingenuous or naïve girl or young woman, or an actress representing such a person.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of ingenue.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an actress who specializes in playing the role of an artless innocent young girl
  • noun an artless innocent young girl (especially as portrayed on the stage)
  • noun the role of an innocent artless young woman in a play

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, feminine of ingénu, guileless, from Latin ingenuus, ingenuous; see ingenuous.]

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Examples

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