(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
lacking experience and the understanding that comes from it — often too trusting or optimistic- Corinthians was naive, but she was not a complete fool.Toni Morrison -- Song of Solomon
- I was fourteen and had never made less than an A. I was smart, but I was as naive as they come.Kathryn Stockett -- The Help
- From the day he saw with his own eyes what the British had done at Lexington and Concord, Adams failed to understand how anyone could have any misconception or naïve hope about what to expect from the British.David McCullough -- John Adams
- Before the genocide, I probably was naive in terms of believing people, trusting people.Tracy Kidder -- Strength in What Remains
- You know, you're such a pure and naive young man that I almost feel sorry for you.Joseph Heller -- Catch-22
- "You are shockingly naive, prince," said Lebedeff's nephew in mocking tones.Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Idiot
- You gentlemen here, forgive me, but you are just a bunch of naive dreamers.Kazuo Ishiguro -- The Remains of the Day
- As for Frank Zhang, he has a good heart, but he's hopelessly naïve and inexperienced.Rick Riordan -- The Son of Neptune
- "Then you don't think I was foolish?" he asked becoming again the naive and sweet-tempered boy for whom Nature intended him.E.M. Forster -- Howards End
- Perhaps naively, she had imagined that they would be a couple forever.Nicholas Sparks -- A Bend in the Road
- Short and curvy, she was also incredibly naive, which was alternately annoying and endearing.Sarah Dessen -- Lock and Key
- Is there anyone here so naive he believes the Harkonnens have quietly packed up and walked away from all this merely because the Emperor ordered it?Frank Herbert -- Dune
- He called us naive firebrands, adding that we would mellow with age.Nelson Mandela -- Long Walk to Freedom
- "That's the very thing I had been thinking myself!" he naively said.Thomas Hardy -- Far from the Madding Crowd
- Too many adults are naive or close-minded about what their children are going through.Luis J. Rodriguez -- Always Running
- For heaven's sake, can't you stop being so naive about it?Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead
- It was a naive and sentimental time, and men spoke in windy phrases.Michael Shaara -- The Killer Angels
- "We are creators, and yet we naively play the role of 'the created.'Dan Brown -- The Lost Symbol
- I was naive. back then, but I was blessed with a sensitivity that told me there was something terribly wrong in David's life.Dave Pelzer -- A Child Called It
- There is a certain amount of simple-mindedness in Stella as well as deception, a sort of naive seriousness.Saul Bellow -- The Adventures of Augie March