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ingenue

[an-zhuh-noo, -nyoo, an-zhay-ny] / ˈæn ʒəˌnu, -ˌnju, ɛ̃ ʒeɪˈnü /


ingénue




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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His previous feature, 2016’s love-it-or-hate-it loony toon “The Neon Demon,” was a modeling industry semi-satire that featured beauties quite literally gobbling up their ingenue competition.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

A thoroughly modern ingenue, Flora is determined to bring change.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

Born in New Jersey and raised in Florida, Gigi was a drama school nerd who turned to music when she realised she was "never going to be cast in the ingenue role".

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024

Purser’s Anne isn’t the demure ingenue of more traditional productions, even though McDonald’s Edouard Dindon has no problem playing the farcical parental heavy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2024

Talent contests and megalomaniac record producers have always paired ingenue wannabes with experienced songwriters, for instance, cashing in quickly on success before the public's appetite for novelty fades.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

This woman should be smoking cigarettes in a Parisian cafe, not getting up to the bubbly mischief Van der Velden envisions for her ingénue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025

The last verse, and the album's closing words, are addressed to pop music's next young ingénue.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2024

Kelli O’Hara and Adam Guettel had the inkling more than 20 years ago, when she was a Broadway ingénue, working on what became her breakthrough Tony-nominated role in “Light in the Piazza.”

From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024

She’s no ingénue, but the rise of Uzo Aduba has been nothing shy of meteoric.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023

It seems that our ingénue has remained to play a part in the farce, too.

From The Duel and Other Stories by Constance Garnett

Instead, the ingénues were cast in lead roles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025

Ms. Hunt said she begged studio executives to end her run of dewy-eyed coeds and romance-minded ingénues and give her a better range of parts, even if it meant a drop from marquee billing.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2022

Pre-Code actresses no longer played merely vamps or ingénues, those twin feminine archetypes that dominated the silent era.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2022

“She’s one of the great ingénues, but she’s fiery, she’s different, she’s got a past.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2019

She stood before the screen, certain she could practically smell the restaurant, the heavy perfumes of a room full of divas and ingénues.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny


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