Basic+ Word of the Day: naive

naive (adjective)

Naive means ‘childlike and innocent.’

• Those naive children are so cute!
• The boy's manner was so naive that the teacher wanted to protect him from bullies.

Naive also means ‘inexperienced’ and ‘likely to believe everything.’

• The naive new teacher believed that her students all wanted to learn.
• You're naive if you think that you can win this election.
• The naive tourist paid twice what the vase was worth.

Did you know?

Naive people tend to believe everything they hear. They don’t know how to tell the difference between truth and lies. They assume that other people’s motives are pure. Although we usually think of young people as being naive, you can be naive at any age.

Related words

naivety: the state of being naive. Example: “The naivety of the other political party shocks me.”

In pop culture

SpongeBob SquarePants has a secret. Watch this clip to find out what it is. Do you agree with Spongebob?

And now a song

Listen to the lyrics of the Kooks’ song “Naive.” Whom do you think is naive?

There are other meanings of naive.