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naivete
in a sentence

show 46 more with this conextual meaning
  • Just here, Franny, in apparent despair at the naivete of the question, struck her forehead with her hand.†   (source)
  • There were two kinds of naivete, he said, quoting Schweitzer; one not even aware of the problems, and another which has knocked on all the doors of knowledge and knows man can explain little, and is still willing to follow his convictions into the unknown.†   (source)
  • Notice the youth, naivete, and indignation of the young Conrack enraged.†   (source)
  • Yurii Andreievich said nothing, merely shrugging his shoulders and making no secret of his almost uncontrollable exasperation at Liberius's naivete.†   (source)
  • He liked naivete better.†   (source)
  • The naivete of those dreams always made Powell smile.†   (source)
  • The commissar's naivete embarrassed him, but the sly sophistication of the commandant and his aide-two sneering and dissembling opportunists-was no better.†   (source)
  • Naive by nature, she also affects naivete; and although she is still quite young, she already pretends to be younger still, prattles, twitters, plays the ingenue, the little foolish girl, the pure field lily.†   (source)
  • But was it corruption or was it merely that you lost the naivete that you started with?†   (source)
  • The morning, this early, was often gentle prairie weather, long before the rugged grind--like the naivete you get to expect in the hardest and toughest-used when you've been with them long enough--I refer to business and heat of a Chicago summer afternoon.†   (source)
  • In spite of her terrifying frankness and overwhelming naivete, he really knew nothing about her and he was tired of living with an enigma.†   (source)
  • He responded at once by presenting himself at her home with all his disarming naivete.†   (source)
  • He was amused at her naivete and slightly touched.†   (source)
  • You wrote from your heart and you do not know the delightful naivete which is in every line.†   (source)
  • " "Perhaps I feared to make Alphonse jealous," she interjoined, with excessive naivete.†   (source)
  • This naivete of expectation drove me to fury, but I restrained myself.†   (source)
  • He had never seen so lovely a face, and was delighted with her naivete.†   (source)
  • Adele sang the canzonette tunefully enough, and with the naivete of her age.†   (source)
  • The naivete of Miss Smith's manners—and altogether—Oh, it is most admirable!†   (source)
  • The naivete of his words, Settembrini said, was less problematic than his fear of giving offense and his tendency to make concessions to the Devil.†   (source)
  • Those formal phrases, the very flower of small-town proprieties, and the flat commonplaces, nearly all hypocritical in their origin, became very funny, very engaging, when they were uttered in Lena's soft voice, with her caressing intonation and arch naivete.†   (source)
  • No more of the girlish alternations of timidity and petulance, the adorable naivete, the reveries, the tears, the playfulness….†   (source)
  • It will give you some idea of the extraordinary naivete of Edward Ashburnham that, at the time of his marriage and for perhaps a couple of years after, he did not really know how children are produced.†   (source)
  • Even while he was speaking an idea dawned upon him, and he said with unconscious simplicity, in a different voice, and with the naivete of a child, "that's quite true, upon my honour.†   (source)
  • In the very expression of his face this naivete was unmistakably evident, this disbelief in the insincerity of others, and unsuspecting disregard of irony or humour in their words.†   (source)
  • It was all in vain, Naphta responded, that Herr Settembrini appealed to the naivete of those victorious morning years of Christianity—which had only proved its creative force by making demons of those it conquered.†   (source)
  • It looked like the work of a child of five, but a child would have had some naivete and might at least have made an attempt to put down what he saw; but here was the work of a vulgar mind chock full of recollections of vulgar pictures.†   (source)
  • But the latter's good-natured naivete was so boundless that sometimes even he involuntarily yielded to Nicholas' good humor.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, the naivete, the sweetness of the faces, the gayety of the attitudes and draperies, and that inexplicable charm which is mingled with all the defects, render the little figures very diverting and delicate, perchance, even too much so.†   (source)
  • In the rest of practical life he walked by hereditary habit; half from that personal pride and unreflecting egoism which I have already called commonness, and half from that naivete which belonged to preoccupation with favorite ideas.†   (source)
  • In spite of the recent lecture on good manners, the weaver could not help giving a long "whew" of astonishment, and the others were so amused by his naivete that the merriment flitted all over their faces, though for courtesy's sake they forbore actual laughter; while I looked from one to the other in a puzzled manner, and at last said: "Tell me, please, what is amiss: you know I want to learn from you.†   (source)
  • These two remarks might have constituted an impertinence; but a glance at Lord Deepmere's face would have satisfied you, as it apparently satisfied Madame de Cintre, that they constituted only a naivete.†   (source)
  • But there was an elasticity in her firmness which removed it from obstinacy, as there was a naivete in her cheapening which saved it from meanness.†   (source)
  • Do you hear that phrase uttered with such premature haste—'if not I'—the animal cunning, the naivete, the Karamazov impatience of it?†   (source)
  • And he looked towards the glass himself with much naivete; and in so doing, caught Miss Sharp's eye fixed keenly upon him, at which he blushed a little, and Rebecca thought in her heart, "Ah, mon beau Monsieur!†   (source)
  • He spoke to his companion, who made answer; then he replied with the naivete of a diverted child, "Wait till I say begin."†   (source)
  • George laughed at her naivete; and finally they went down to dinner, Amelia clinging to George's arm, still warbling the tune of "Wapping Old Stairs," and more pleased and light of mind than she had been for some days past.†   (source)
  • In Egyptian Orient, poetry has like the edifices, grandeur and tranquillity of line; in antique Greece, beauty, serenity, calm; in Christian Europe, the Catholic majesty, the popular naivete, the rich and luxuriant vegetation of an epoch of renewal.†   (source)
  • I found in him, on the contrary, an extreme mistrustfulness concealed under a mask of naivete, and an intelligence of considerable range.†   (source)
  • Valentin listened and questioned, many of his questions making Newman laugh loud at the naivete of his ignorance of the vulgar processes of money-getting; smiling himself, too, half ironical and half curious.†   (source)
  • But all he said was so prettily sedate, and the naivete of his youthful egotism was so obvious, that he disarmed his hearers.†   (source)
  • Harriet was on the point of leaving the room, and only stopt to say, with a very interesting naivete, "Oh! dear, no, never."†   (source)
  • As soon as he said this both Prince Vasili and Anna Pavlovna turned away from him and glanced sadly at one another with a sigh at his naivete.†   (source)
  • Had Helene herself shown the least sign of hesitation, shame, or secrecy, her cause would certainly have been lost; but not only did she show no signs of secrecy or shame, on the contrary, with good-natured naivete she told her intimate friends (and these were all Petersburg) that both the prince and the magnate had proposed to her and that she loved both and was afraid of grieving either.†   (source)
  • In the few minutes' conversation which she had yet had with him, while Harriet had been partially insensible, he had spoken of her terror, her naivete, her fervour as she seized and clung to his arm, with a sensibility amused and delighted; and just at last, after Harriet's own account had been given, he had expressed his indignation at the abominable folly of Miss Bickerton in the warmest terms.†   (source)
  • Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as grass, uncomb'd head, laughter, and naivete, Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations, They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers, They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath, they fly out of the glance of his eyes.†   (source)
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