Sample sentences for INGENUOUS

(click/touch triangles for details)

Definition

innocent as in lacking in sophistication or worldliness — especially in being direct and not masking feelings

She plays a wide-eyed, ingenuous schoolgirl forced to grow up too quickly.

ingenuous = innocent as in lacking in sophistication or worldliness — especially in being direct and not masking feelings

The face of the old man was stern, hard-featured, and forbidding; that of the young one, open, handsome, and ingenuous.
Dickens, Charles -- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
This ingenuous remark confirmed Miss Maxwell's opinion of Rebecca as a girl who could hear the truth and profit by it.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas -- Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm
My experienced commander seemed in one searching glance to read my thoughts on my ingenuous face.
Conrad, Joseph -- The Mirror of the Sea
Did you ever know a more harmless, ingenuous, delightful young man in your life?
Oppenheim, E. Phillips -- The Kingdom of the Blind
He was a year older than I, and I avoided him on principle: he enjoyed everything I disapproved of, and disliked my ingenuous diversions.
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

ingenuous = innocent or childlike

And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous.
Guy de Maupassant -- The Diamond Necklace

ingenuous = innocent as in lacking in sophistication or worldliness — especially in being direct and not masking feelings

I have seen it with these eyes, and I ingenuously confess...
Robert Louis Stevenson -- Kidnapped

ingenuously = candidly (in a straightforward manner without attempt to posture or put things in the best light for me)

George Tesman is really an ingenuous creature,
Henrik Ibsen -- Hedda Gabler

ingenuous = lacking in sophistication or worldliness

It was impossible to determine whether this question was ingenuous or malicious.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Winter Dreams

ingenuous = innocent (direct and sincere)

...he gave her a most ingenuous account of everything that had befallen him since the moment of their separation.
Voltaire -- Candide

ingenuous = direct (without trying to present events in a manner that made him look better)

He smiled ingenuously, revealing the gaps in his teeth,
Alexander Solzhenitsyn -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

ingenuously = in a genuine manner without trying to make himself look better

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.
Albert Camus -- The Stranger

ingenuousness = lack of sophistication

(Editor's note: 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.)

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.
Kate Chopin -- The Awakening

ingenuous = unsophisticated directness (not trying to present events in a manner that made him look better)

His ingenuous delight in it was a delight to her...
London, Jack -- The Game
In presence of this ingenuous greatness of soul, Aramis felt his own littleness.
Dumas, Alexandre -- The Man in the Iron Mask
Heaven only knows what he said to them, but he caused smiles and blushes to mantle their ingenuous faces.
Melville, Herman -- Typee
his ingenuous explanation that he would not have burned the church if he had not thought the bishop was in it
an ingenuous admission of responsibility
"I rejoice to hear so favorable and so ingenuous an account of my cousin Clifford," said the benevolent Judge.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel -- House Of Seven Gables

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Search for other examples by interest

Interest — Source