naiveté

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na·ive·té

or na·ïve·té (nī′ēv-tā′, nä′-, nī-ē′vĭ-tā′, nä-)

1. The state or quality of being inexperienced or unsophisticated, especially in being artless, credulous, or uncritical.

2. An artless, credulous, or uncritical statement or act.

[French naïveté, from Old French naivete, native disposition, from naif, artless; see naive.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

na•ive•té

or na•ïve•té or na•ive•te

(nɑ ivˈteɪ, -ˌi vəˈteɪ, -ˈiv teɪ, -ˈi və-)

n.

1. the quality or state of being naive; unaffected simplicity.

2. a naive action, remark, etc.

[1665–75; < French; see naive, -ity]

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Noun

naivete - lack of sophistication or worldliness

naiveness, naivety

quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare

artlessness, ingenuousness, innocence, naturalness - the quality of innocent naivete

credulousness, gullibility - tendency to believe too readily and therefore to be easily deceived

simple mindedness, simpleness, simplicity - a lack of penetration or subtlety; "they took advantage of her simplicity"

mundaneness, mundanity, worldliness, sophistication - the quality or character of being intellectually sophisticated and worldly through cultivation or experience or disillusionment

Translations

naïveté

ingenuità

naïveté

naivety [naɪˈiːvtɪ] N → ingenuidad f, candor m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

naïveté

naivety [naɪˈiːvəteɪ] n → naïveté f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

naïveté

, naïvety

n → Naivität f; (of person also) → Einfalt f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

naïveté

[ˌnɑːiːvˈteɪ] naivety [naɪˈiːvtɪ] n → ingenuità f inv

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

This naivete of expectation drove me to fury, but I restrained myself.

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You wrote from your heart and you do not know the delightful naivete which is in every line.

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"I believe she had," replied the duke, with careless naivete and a complaisant forgetfulness, of which no words could translate the tone and the vocal expression.

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Hesiod's charm lies in his child-like and sincere naivete, in his unaffected interest in and picturesque view of nature and all that happens in nature.

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Harriet was on the point of leaving the room, and only stopt to say, with a very interesting naivete,

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"Perhaps I feared to make Alphonse jealous," she interjoined, with excessive naivete. That made them all laugh.

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Like many of us, he has been captivated by her naturalness, her naivete, her clear good eyes,--that look of nature that is always art!

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But all he said was so prettily sedate, and the naivete of his youthful egotism was so obvious, that he disarmed his hearers.

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"I thought you'd jump at it," she confessed, with a naivete he could not but question, for he thought he saw a roguish gleam in her eyes.

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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. Nothing could be more diverting than to hear Lena, who was almost as candid as Nature, call a leg a `limb' or a house a `home.'

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The fair Indian, astonished at the sensation her observation produced, looked down and resumed her air of naivete.

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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.