Synonyms for ingenuous
- artless
- candid
- childlike
- frank
- green
- guileless
- innocent
- like a babe in the woods
- naive
- natural
- open
- outspoken
- plain
- simple
- sincere
- square
- straightforward
- trusting
- unaffected
- unartful
- unartificial
- undisguised
- unreserved
- unschooled
- unsophisticated
- unstudied
- up front
Antonyms for ingenuous
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR INGENUOUS
Without knowing why, they understood perfectly now that neither had been ingenuous.
Somehow, the inflection on the last word did not altogether suggest the ingenuous.
It was ingenuous and brave; born of a proud and great purity.
He trembled before this innocence, so ardent and so ingenuous.
He was, however, anticipated by the voice of the ingenuous and youthful Alice.
Her ingenuous innocence did not conceal her gladness at seeing me!
I cannot boast of Mr. Creech's ingenuous fair dealing to me.
Thy heart is ingenuous and sincere; thy misfortune is poignant and affecting.
Imogen stood for a moment in a sweet and ingenuous state of suspense.
He possessed a soul brave, liberal, enlightened, and ingenuous.
WORD ORIGIN
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.
MORE RELATED WORDS FOR INGENUOUS
artless
adjectivesimplecandid
adjectivehonestfrank
adjectivecompletely honest- aboveboard
- apparent
- artless
- bare-faced
- blunt
- bold
- brazen
- call a spade a spade
- candid
- direct
- downright
- easy
- familiar
- flat-out
- forthright
- free
- from the hip
- guileless
- heart-to-heart
- ingenuous
- lay it on the line
- like it is
- matter-of-fact
- naive
- natural
- open
- outright
- outspoken
- plain
- plain-spoken
- real
- saying what one thinks
- scrupulous
- sincere
- straight
- straightforward
- transparent
- truthful
- unconcealed
- undisguised
- uninhibited
- unreserved
- unrestricted
- up front
- upright