• (America) IPA: /ɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/

ingenuous

1. Naive and trusting.
2. Demonstrating childlike simplicity.
   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “ch. 12”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC ↗:

     "Do you mean to say you didn't leave your wife for another woman?"
     "Of course not."
     "On your word of honour?"
     I don't know why I asked for that. It was very ingenuous of me.

3. Unsophisticated; clumsy or obvious.
4. Unable to mask one's feelings.
5. Straightforward, candid, open, frank.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 37, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC ↗:

     [H]is Grace’s Man at his club, in company doubtless with other Men of equal social rank, talks over his master’s character and affairs with the ingenuous truthfulness which befits gentlemen who are met together in confidence.

• See also Thesaurus:naive

• disingenuous

• ingenue, ingénue
• ingenu, ingénu

• French: ingénu
• German: arglos, freimütig, treuherzig, unverdorben
• Portuguese: ingénuo
• Spanish: inocente, ingenuo

• French: ingénu
• German: unbedarft, schlicht
• Italian: ingenuo
• Russian: бесхи́тростный