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naif - 5 dictionary results

na⋅ïf

  [nah-eef]
Use naif in a Sentence
–noun
1. a naive or inexperienced person.
–adjective
2. naive.
Also, na⋅if.

Origin:
< MF; masc. of naïve
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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na·if or na·ïf   (nī-ēf', nä-)   
adj.   & n.
Variants of naive.
na·ive or na·ïve   (nī-ēv', nä-)   
adj.  
  1. Lacking worldly experience and understanding, especially:
    1. Simple and guileless; artless: a child with a naive charm.
    2. Unsuspecting or credulous: "Students, often bright but naive, bet—and lose—substantial sums of money on sporting events" (Tim Layden).
    3. Not previously subjected to experiments: testing naive mice.
    4. Not having previously taken or received a particular drug: persons naive to marijuana.
  2. Showing or characterized by a lack of sophistication and critical judgment: "this extravagance of metaphors, with its naive bombast" (H.L. Mencken).
    1. Not previously subjected to experiments: testing naive mice.
    2. Not having previously taken or received a particular drug: persons naive to marijuana.
n.  One who is artless, credulous, or uncritical.

[French naïve, feminine of naïf, from Old French naif, natural, native, from Latin nātīvus, native, rustic, from nātus, past participle of nāscī, to be born; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]
na·ive'ly adv., na·ive'ness n.
Synonyms: These adjectives mean free from guile, cunning, or sham. Naive sometimes connotes a credulity that impedes effective functioning in a practical world: "this naive simple creature, with his straightforward and friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances" (Arnold Bennett).
Simple stresses absence of complexity, artifice, pretentiousness, or dissimulation: "Those of highest worth and breeding are most simple in manner and attire" (Francis Parkman). "Among simple people she had the reputation of being a prodigy of information" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
Ingenuous denotes childlike directness, simplicity, and innocence; it connotes an inability to mask one's feelings: an ingenuous admission of responsibility.
Unsophisticated indicates absence of worldliness: the astonishment of unsophisticated tourists at the tall buildings.
Natural stresses spontaneity that is the result of freedom from self-consciousness or inhibitions: "When Kavanagh was present, Alice was happy, but embarrassed; Cecelia, joyous and natural" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
Unaffected implies sincerity and lack of affectation: "With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works" (Jane Austen).
Guileless signifies absence of insidious or treacherous cunning: a guileless, disarming look.
Artless stresses absence of plan or purpose and suggests unconcern for or lack of awareness of the reaction produced in others: a child of artless grace and simple goodness.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Naif

Na"["i]f`\ (?; formerly ?), a. [F. na["i]f. See Na["i]ve.]

1. Having a true natural luster without being cut; -- applied by jewelers to a precious stone.

2. Na["i]ve; as, a na["i]f remark. --London Spectator.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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naif  (adj.)
1598, from Fr. naïf, lit. "naive" (see naive). As a noun, first attested 1893.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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