Ingenuous

 WORD OF THE DAY

ingenuous / adjective / in-JEN-yuh-wus

Definition
1a: showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness
1b: lacking craft or subtlety
2 (obsolete): noble, honorable
3 (obsolete):  ingenious

Example
“I remember too well being young yet adult, confident yet ingenuous. It’s like marching off to war, armed with a bubble wand.”
— Margo Bartlett, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 20 Apr. 2022

Did You Know?
Ingenuous is most often used to describe someone who has a childlike innocence and openness.
It should not be confused with ingenious, which typically describes someone who is unusually inventive or clever, or something made or done in an especially original or clever way.
The words look very much alike, but sound different: remember that ingenuous sounds like its linguistic relation genuine, while ingenious sounds like genius—despite the fact that there is no etymological connection between those two.