Definitions

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

  • adjective Naive.
  • noun One who is naive.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French naïf.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word naif.

Examples

  • But the sense in which the term naif should be understood in literary criticism is so imperfectly agreed upon among us, that we have not yet even found an English equivalent for the word.

    Chaucer Adolphus William Ward 1880

  • Barack Obama embraced this consensus during the campaign, only to be called a naif and an appeaser.

    Alan Fein: It's Not Good Luck, It's Consensus 2008

  • If, that is, the naif didn't know this was the same Mitch McConnell who has turned filibustering into an art form.

    Boston.com Top Stories 2012

  • It gets tiresome to do the google work for a 'naif'.

    White House Attacks Hillary Campaign 2009

  • Banyak di antara para menginginkan orang Batak, orang Melayu, KH Abdurrahman Wahid adalah tokoh nasional yang sejak awal mengedepankan politisi yang berasal dari akademisi menjadi orang Jawa, atau keturunan Chinese yang pernah mengenyam pendidikan saja pun di belakang tim pemenangan para calon pluralisme dan kemajemukan di Indonesia sehingga patut disebut sebagai Bapak berani mengajukan dirinya bahkan banyak dalam berbagai pemilihan umum baik un - terkesan "naif" dengan pernyataan-pernya - lebih cocok.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2010

  • (And I'm saying this as a real econ naif, so go easy on me.)

    Over-worked or Over-taxed?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • There are divisions here, genuine ideological disagreements about how to approach so many of these problems, and only a naif would dismiss that.

    Beyond Left, Right And Center: It's About Reality Peter S. Goodman 2011

  • There are divisions here, genuine ideological disagreements about how to approach so many of these problems, and only a naif would dismiss that.

    Beyond Left, Right And Center: It's About Reality Peter S. Goodman 2011

  • The first century Egyptian funerary "Mummy Portraits," on wood panels, so vivid and naif, inspired styles of Christian icon paintings that lasted well into the 19th century in Russia.

    Transformational Objects Melik Kaylan 2012

  • The Liar in Chief has ties with Sachs, colludes with the CEO and he, this inept naif with no business background is telling Wall St,. and me, and you, because 54% of us are investors Obama, to shape up or they will come down on the system.

    Obama asks Wall Street to back reform 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "I'd been too distracted even to take offence at his assumption that I was some virginal naif who needed protecting.

    Trick of Time by JL Merrow

    April 26, 2020