ingenuous

[in-jen-yoo-uh s] /ɪnˈdʒɛn yu əs/
adjective
1.
free from reserve, restraint, or dissimulation; candid; sincere.
2.
artless; innocent; naive.
3.
Obsolete. honorable or noble.
Origin
1590-1600; < Latin ingenuus native, free-born, honorable, frank, equivalent to in- in-2 + gen- (base of gignere; see ingenious) + -uus deverbal adj. suffix; see -ous
Related forms
ingenuously, adverb
ingenuousness, noun
half-ingenuous, adjective
half-ingenuously, adverb
half-ingenuousness, noun
Can be confused
ingenious, ingenuous (see usage note at ingenious)
Synonyms
1. frank, straightforward, open. 2. guileless.
Usage note
See ingenious.
Examples from the web for ingenuous
  • The claim is perhaps cagily ingenuous, by a writer often accused of being too cerebral and cool-hearted.
  • Many actors could have been too winsome or ingenuous in the part of such a professional good guy.
  • It is impossible not to accept it in the ingenuous spirit in which it was fabricated.
  • Our children need to think outside the box and be ingenuous to access the vast opportunity to gather information.
  • Its attempted vindication is neither ingenious nor ingenuous.
  • Everyone was flexible and ingenuous and looked for ways to keep things going.
  • Schuyler, however, was unable to enjoy the fruits of his ingenuous tactics.
  • No one, however ingenuous, can meaningfully facilitate any change in a community without familiarising with the people.
  • In some of their protests that they cannot change laws, agencies are being ingenuous.
  • He is not an innocent and ingenuous man freed from all the constrictions of society.
British Dictionary definitions for ingenuous

ingenuous

/ɪnˈdʒɛnjʊəs/
adjective
1.
naive, artless, or innocent
2.
candid; frank; straightforward
Derived Forms
ingenuously, adverb
ingenuousness, noun
Word Origin
C16: from Latin ingenuus freeborn, worthy of a freeman, virtuous, from in-² + -genuus, from gignere to beget
Word Origin and History for ingenuous
adj.

1590s, "noble in nature," from Latin ingenuus "with the virtues of freeborn people, of noble character, frank, upright, candid," originally "native, freeborn," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + gen-, root of gignere "beget, produce" (see genus). Sense of "artless, innocent" is 1670s, via evolution from "high-minded" to "honorably open, straightforward," to "innocently frank." Related: Ingenuously; ingenuousness.