Sample Sentences for
ingenuous
(editor-reviewed)

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    But then the Prosecutor sprang to his feet and, draping his gown round him, said he was amazed at his friend's ingenuousness in failing to see that between these two elements of the case there was a vital link.  (source)
    ingenuousness = lack of sophistication
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    It was impossible to determine whether this question was ingenuous or malicious.  (source)
    ingenuous = innocent (direct and sincere)
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    George Tesman is really an ingenuous creature,  (source)
    ingenuous = lacking in sophistication or worldliness
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
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    With ingenuous frankness he spoke of what a wicked, ill-disciplined boy he had been, and impulsively drew up his cuff to exhibit upon his wrist the scar from a saber cut which he had received in a duel outside of Paris when he was nineteen.  (source)
    ingenuous = unsophisticated directness (not trying to present events in a manner that made him look better)
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    And what was charming in the blond ingenuousness of Aron became suspicious and unpleasant in the dark-faced, slit-eyed Cal.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    I have seen it with these eyes, and I ingenuously confess...  (source)
    ingenuously = candidly (in a straightforward manner without attempt to posture or put things in the best light for me)
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    I'd intended to ask her about Ian's dishonesty and how she felt when she learned she'd been left off the Everest permit, but she was so cheerful and ingenuous that I didn't have the stomach for it.†  (source)
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    He had possessed so few women of such ingenuousness.†  (source)
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    "Well now, no, I haven't," confessed Matthew ingenuously.†  (source)
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    Ofelia did not soften them: she was certain that Florentino Ariza, whose reputation as a pervert was known to everyone, was carrying on an equivocal relationship that did more harm to the family's good name than the villainies of Lorenzo Daza or the ingenuous adventures of Juvenal Urbino.†  (source)
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    He was thin, rather frail-looking, with a boyish ingenuousness and a slightly foolish smile, despite his seven children.†  (source)
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    Indeed the horror of it was how central we were, how ingenuously and not we comprised the larger processes, feeding ourselves and one another to the all-consuming engine of the war.†  (source)
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    "But why do you want to keep the embryo below par?" asked an ingenuous student.†  (source)
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