How To Use Naive In A Sentence

A belief in it is not only not naïve; it is the essential precondition for civilized society, and our best defense against the arbitrary use of power.
We don't easily imagine anymore a naive, unsophisticated 14-year-old without the resources or experience to go it alone or see a way out of current circumstances.
Although _Pyetushkov_ shows us, by a certain open _naïveté_ of style, that a youthful hand is at work, it is the hand of a young master, carrying out the realism of the 'forties' -- that of Gogol, Balzac, and A Desperate Character and Other Stories
Then, the phrase had struck Vincent as doting and naive, but sometime during his stay in Toulio, as his grasp of the Chinese language deepened, and as he learned—or was forced to learn—from his mistakes, he had felt the title gain merit and accuracy. Heaven Lake
Some may view this as naive. The Sun

Linguix Browser extension

Fix your writing
on millions of websites

Get Started
For Free Watch how it works

I loved the very air of innocence and naivety that this place held.
General Ricardo Izurieta, the moderate army commander, is now being criticised for political naivety by diehard Pinochetistas.
How many bands have attempted to recapture the mood and style of their naive years? Times, Sunday Times
Yet only a naive observer would say that his son is not powerful.
His portraits often show his subjects brimming with youthful idealism and naivety; touchingly eager for fame, rather than sullied by it. Times, Sunday Times
Unless we are to believe naively that leisure and luxury crystallize out of thin air, we must recognize and acknowledge that the comforts of globalization are reaped from the labour and toil of others.
Appreciation of conventional cinema aesthetics, among both filmmakers and their intended audience, may be naïve or limited.
He was like a little child, too innocent, too naive.
So too does the naive confidence in the factual basis of scientific belief. Science, Technology, and Social Change
She rejected it at first, thinking naively she could continue being a political journalist until she heard the whole nation cackle with laughter. Times, Sunday Times
A gamine ingenue to her sophisticated divorcee, she plays this streetwise waif with the same knowing naivety that made the 12-year-old such a disturbingly seductive assassin's helpmate in her first film, Leon.
The play explores children's honest if naive attempts to reconcile conflicts between rules of peer friendship and the expectations of parents.
Nations. yep, it's pretty quaint stuff, couched in terms of newness and normalcy, of foreigness and familiarity. it describes the music as modern and "swingy" and yet timeless, as being of universal appeal - they belong to everyone - and yet "from a single nationality." i wonder whether the universalist rhetoric was meant to appeal to non-jews or simply to jews ambivalent about their jewishness? or am i simply being naive about midcentury, metropolitan jewishness? it is interesting to me also that, apparently, zionist discourse had not yet divorced the term palestinian from any association with jewish heritage. Wayneandwax.com
She was very naive to believe that he'd stay with her.
But her shrill, naive polemicizing caused Michaels to inwardly wince, as if at a cruel reflection of himself. The Cry of the Onlies
He tries to buy one on the street, but his naïvete and lack of street sense only see him get scammed by con artists.
His portraits often show his subjects brimming with youthful idealism and naivety; touchingly eager for fame, rather than sullied by it. Times, Sunday Times
Is it naively idealistic to imagine a British prime minister taking on such a Herculean burden?
I was naïve, that was for sure, young, yup, and lazy, most definitely.
It is unrealistic to expect the young and naive to feel more responsibility for public expenditure than government does. Times, Sunday Times
ANd the likelyhood that the GOP, the party of greed and commercialism, will do something to prevent the mindless commercialism is naive. Think Progress » POLL: Only 3 Percent Say Homosexuality is America’s ‘Most Serious Moral Crisis’
In the light of this, one might be inclined to say that she is naïve or innocent or foolhardy.
When people decide to undertake an initiative, they naively think that all they have to do is go out and collect the requisite number of signatures and then presto you're on the ballot-wrong.
These actions came as a result of my own naivety, driven by a desire to strengthen regulations on payday lenders and protect vulnerable consumers. The Sun
But it would be naive to pretend that seismic political change can be avoided. Times, Sunday Times
The naivety, hateful ignorance and misguided arguments of his article were appalling to say the least.
This is very similar to the detailed, ornate, velvety and yet touchingly naive backdrops of those medieval scenes, that can be glimpsed through narrow windows in front of which wimpled ladies exchange devotional books with chivalrous gentlemen. Archive 2008-06-01
An ambiguous face -- strong and vulnerable, naïve and shrewd. THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
Let's not give the impression that we are entering into this with dewy-eyed naivety.
So instead I ask the straight girls amongst you to help out the naïve and cack-handed man in your life.
Let's put it down to youthful naivety. The Sun
In contrast to the naive and unquestioning faith of yesteryear, everyone now realizes at least the possibility of collapse of the FDIC.
In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we assume.
+Foxp3+ Tregs that potently suppressed alloantigen-induced activation of naïve LEW T-cells in vitro and liver allograft rejection in vivo. Elites TV
This may sound wise, but you only need to rewind ten years to see that it is also naive. Times, Sunday Times
Throughout the history of naïve, misleading realism, there has been a countercurrent of pseudorealism, which has satirized the shortcomings of this mode we have been conditioned to unquestioningly accept.
Ryder's familiarity with the camera contributes to his disarmingly ingenuous presence, by turns determined and naive.
It is my total albeit, naive-sounding, to nihilists masquerading as realists belief that there is remedy to this incident; the Iranian government can make this happen without appearing to have equivocated, and frankly, without appearing as anomalous in their imprisonment of artists, because again, history is far too rife with such instances, the world over. Michael Vazquez: On The Imprisonment of Iranian Filmmakers: A Moral Option For Iran and Any Government Presuming to Silence Its Artists
Geczy's basic argument is that craft without an idea is simple formalism, a naïve tendency that can lead to all sorts of dark consequences.
I often feel like many aspects of my personality remain child-like and unformed, while in other areas I feel a wisdom that belies my age - possible naive musings, but questions that puzzle me on occasion.
Professor Ian Stewart, Warwick University maths professor and occasional Telegraph contributor, points out: Reindeer have a curious arrangement of gadgetry on top of their heads which we call antlers and naively assume exist for the males to do battle and to win females. Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
It was naive what was done, uncalled for, and unwanted, but all acted out with the best intentions in mind.
Some writers can spell and punctuate; some can't. Some writers will reveal a lifetime of experience; some will display a youthful naivety.
You always said that you were politically naive, that you were a non-political person.
I'm alarmed that people over the age of 16 can act so unpleasantly towards their fellow humans, but I suppose that makes me naive and thin-skinned.
She was famous for portraying naïvety and innocence on stage, qualities far removed from her real-life personality.
Yes, and in telling about it I'll show my naive ignorance: 4, 5, 6 (?) years ago on a vacation through much of New England, we stopped at a bookstore and I noticed a "local" author shelf with some mass market pbs with "woodcut" - style black and red covers depicting Sleepy-Hollow-like scenes. A Touch of Genius
I can't believe you were so naive as to trust him!
Beyond sentimentality and self-indulgence, these backward glances at a naïve landscape awaken - or reawaken - the conservationist within us.
This quotation comes from a conversation between the artist and Sarah Martin in the exhibition catalog, which is essential to understanding the intent of the show—excepting the philosophically naïve yet slightly condescending initial essay, "Re-imagining Reality" by Sîan Ede. An Eruption in Margate
Even the Magdalene herself, eyes turned in horror from the abandoned grave to the radiant glory of the seraphim, had the faint touch of that naiveté in her eyes.
Despite her independence and academic brilliance, she is naive and unworldly and her choices are terrifying.
I went to the most sophisticated game, baccarat, and naively asked the burly pit boss what were the odds of winning at this game.
They could all play and sing really well but had a naivety and willingness to learn and improve.
He was a bluff, domineering character who exuded confidence though politically he often showed signs of naivety.
State authorities are no longer naive to the possibilities enabled by mobile communication media, and the power-counterpower conflict in urban areas will involve a complex mix of political tactics, technology regulation, social practices that [...] Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Cyber-Urban Activism in Indonesia
Forget the stereotype of the naive female student who answers an ad and ends up on the streets.
To portray him out of context could make him appear naive and unworldly.
I know I was a naive fool to trust him but he is a real charmer who totally took me in.
Escaping to Italy, she sets her sights on the newly married Robert Windermere, whose wife Meg is about to turn 21 and is still charming with the naivety and idealism of youth.
Stacey continued to babble on, totally naïve to the fact that she was causing so many eyes to focus on her.
Copper's style consists of a firmly tonal framework into which rogue elements of chromaticism, wrong notes (in tonal terms), bitonality are mixed in a rather naïve manner.
As a young assistant professor naïve in departmental politics I was quite vulnerable, and had a difficult time during my subsequent years at Michigan. Carl E. Wieman - Autobiography
The notion that on-the-spot 100 fines will bring sanity and serenity is hopelessly naive. Times, Sunday Times
If there is conversion from memory to naive phenotype, the conversion rate will be significantly greater than zero.
Linear simplicity, naive spontaneity, subtlety of tones and interesting techniques mark his abstracts.
Despite her independence and academic brilliance, she is naive and unworldly and her choices are terrifying.
Without such a justification, is there a danger of having the work dismissed as pretension or posturing or, at worse, accused of naiveté?
One would have to be very naive to expect any historical Hollywood film to be accurate.
Undoubtedly Ronald Dworkin will want to correct what seems like a clear error when he writes, "Only the most naïve theories of statutory construction could argue that such a result [forbidding action such as that taken by the University of California, Davis Medical School] is required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Bakke Case: An Exchange
Only a very naive observer would conclude that this is currently a party with the focus and energy to win another mandate, whoever its leader may be.
Perhaps it was the shock that kept them hoping or maybe it was a naive innocence.
She was very naive to believe that he'd stay with her.
But you can only stand open-mouthed at the naivety of this particular suggestion. Times, Sunday Times
How is it possible to be more naive than these people? Times, Sunday Times
As a native of the area around Mobile, Alabama, a place long ridiculed by many as the nation's stepchild, it amused me that what was disdained as a redneck corner of the universe populated by ignorant and racist whites and besieged blacks became the "sunbelt" in the 1970s and as soon as those "cheeseheads" arrived in "crackerland" with no more need for their snowtires and discovered giant flying cockroaches and mildew among other horrors and complained mightily about the tropics they had naively sought, they became disenchanted. Lake Level Sucks 11-19-05
Politically he was naïvely ambitious and factious; he owes the epithet ‘Good’ only to his patronage of men of letters, including Lydgate and Capgrave.
In some episodes where a threat lurks, the colored scribbles grow dense and fraught, mutely warning against dangers that the character is too naive to see for himself.
Mozart's music is characterized by its naivety and clarity.
This family bears: party per pale or and sable, an orle counterchanged and two lozenges counterchanged, with: “i, semper melius eris,” — a motto which, together with the two distaffs taken as supporters, proves the modesty of the burgher families in the days when the Orders held their allotted places in the State; and the naivete of our ancient customs by the pun on A Start in Life
Far from being naive or credulous in the face of blind biology I say that it is our human experience of heroism and selflessness which best defines us.
Unbelievably naive, and I would agree with "whacko"--and I've met a few people who actually seem to believe that. Fire with Fire
India Bridge is a decent woman, hopefully naïve, willfully unliberated, cursed with a brain she is afraid to use and time that she cannot manage to fill.
The method we were instructed to use now seems naive. Times, Sunday Times
Genta is careworn, beaten down by life, and no longer naïve enough to believe in Bushido, but he's not cynical.
Far from being cynical spoilsmen or naive incompetents, individuals whose presidencies provide studies in ineptitude, Garfield and Arthur emerge as men of considerable ability.
Now, call me naive / unobservant / clueless, but I didn't realise that Qurious was designed for a slightly less heterosexual patron than I. I simply assumed the owner was rather indecisive on choice of colour scheme.
I must be naive thinking uni was for education. The Sun
Their philosophy may have seemed reckless and naive but, given the nature of the marketplace, it was understandable.
But his controversial elevation to the peerage to enable him to become a junior health minister has already exposed his political naivety and allegiance. Times, Sunday Times
He was kind of goofy and maybe even a little naïve, with an innocent smile on his face.
She had a warm and naive quality that would appeal to an audience, along with a wonderful comedic sense. The Other Side of Me
Since the former earlier this week defended the FIA decision to restage the race, even – disastrously –releasing the naive-looking report on which that decision was based, Ecclestone changed his position, while Todt's predecessor Max Mosley said there was not the slightest chance that the race would be run. F1's Bahrain Grand Prix cancelled again as Ecclestone comes under fire
She wasn't always as innocent and naive as she seemed.
The songs on the album prove meditative, probing, and soothing all at once; they comfort without slipping into naivete.
The enthusiasm of the 18th-century scientists who searched for an objective order looks naive today, yet I sense at the end of our century something like a renewal of a hopeful tone.
The authors are not naïve about the barriers to the process of experimentation and adoption.
But isn't it telling of the naivety of the people who were duped by the claim that they could get a tan from their computer? The Sun
But while some may cavil at this, others may think it gives The Making Of Scotland character and a certain naive charm.
Contemporary Christian music may be lame and uninspiring, but the answer is not to be found in longing, naively and uncritically, for mainstream success.
In her naiveté she had thought that all serious books were reviewed in the major newspapers, especially The New York Times.
Please don't pretend to be good to me. I'm so naive that I will take it seriously.
In flashbacks he is hampered with the unhappy task of being the innocent amid these connivers, but a stronger actor might have been able to make naïveté more interesting.
At its worst, it combined the naivety of the 1960s, the anti-intellectualism of the 1970s and the ravenous greed of the 1980s.
Maybe that is just my experience; perhaps much of the country is repressed and I am naively unaware.
Scholars have suggested that because the edicts say nothing about the philosophical aspects of Buddhism, Asoka had a simplistic and naive understanding of the Dhamma.
It seemed naive to stick to older heads. Times, Sunday Times
They were naive and easily misled.
If we theorize culture without considering the dynamics of fear or emotions, we naively underestimate the potential for social change.
She now thinks she was naive not to have realised the risk. Times, Sunday Times
Economists generally take for granted, if only tacitly, a teleological view of money's historical development, according to which it first takes the "primitive" form of mundane commodities such as cowrie shells and cacao seeds, and then advances through various stages, culminating in the national fiat monies most economies rely upon today. offers a spirited rebuttal to this naively "whiggish" perspective. EconLog
Investing in art is ideal for naive investors since it is risk-free.
It is unrealistic to expect the young and naive to feel more responsibility for public expenditure than government does. Times, Sunday Times
The first was the semi-literate, naive nature of the letters implying these are some of the least educated, least switched on members of society, often on income support or some other kind of benefit.
We miss out on the world because we are naive, ingénues who need to be taught everything.
Can Misha Glenny be so politically naive that he has unwittingly turned into an apologist for aggression?
Earrings hung beside her cheeks and her lips and eyes, naive statements in carmine and jet, struck through the mist like a carnival mask. DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION
Those voices were more voluble and more naive ten years ago than they are today.
The naive and innocent are lured away by unscrupulous agents. Times, Sunday Times
That is why, in this book, in translating a 'roundel' of Villon which Rossetti had already translated, he misses the naïve quality of the French which Rossetti, in a version not in all points so faithful as this, had been able, in some subtle way, to retain. Figures of Several Centuries
He traveled the country giving talks and ambushing naive scientists in debates before huge, receptive audiences of churchgoers.
Naivety bordering on obtuseness helped sustain his faith.
There are extenuating circumstances, her ignorance, her naivety, her youth (not a crime, one character tries to reassure her), and another's scheming and deception.
We also discover that Terry, whose wife absconded with his best man, has turned for clandestine consolation to a naively trusting shopgirl, Nuala, and a dance-loving hairdresser, Breda.
This may sound wise, but you only need to rewind ten years to see that it is also naive. Times, Sunday Times
Weege's draftmanship has a kind of precise naivete - an intentional primitivism that is at once accurate and sharply distorted.
Now, call me naive and slightly innocent… but I figured this was a safe thing to do.
They were young, well-educated, altruistic; Stephanie found their idealism naively evangelical. CHAMELEON
Yet, this technological naivety finally does not matter, for the dystopians' purpose is moral and political.
Anyone who imagines that any regulatory system can invariably guarantee success is naive.
I'd heard of payola as I entered the music business professionally in the mid seventies, but naïvely thought it would never apply to me.
This story has been repeated innumerable times, and structures how we think about law and judging today: formalism is naïve, bad, or false; every sensible and candid person is realistic about judging. Balkinization
Despite his attempts to seem sophisticated and suave, he is endearingly naive, but also intelligent and thoughtful.
I recommend the book "Beyond Belief" about the naive and not so naive views of Hitler before WW2 should one wish to be further depressed about the natural end result of the current "dialogs". elixelx On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
The airplanes are nearly identical and almost naive in their low-tech approach to flight, but are great fliers.
Look at how the pleating in the Virgin's headdress and halo is matched by the pattern of the rocks behind her head: brilliant artificiality or naive conceit? Gopnik's Daily Pic: Bacchiacca in Baltimore
Those who assumed that somebody so ‘uncultured’ and naive was incapable of scheming found out their mistake too late.
Sieden and Baker sing with pure tone and true, perhaps a bit naïve, fostering the illusion that they're just very good local soloists.
Specifically, I was surprised that the article's author could possibly be so naive.
You could believe he was a young cop because LAPD cops are big and strong and physical and he's also young and naïve and innocent and wide eyed.
he took part in the experiment as a naive subject
“Platonic love,” which by philosophers and poets of the Renaissance was understood in a pro - foundly mystical sense, was castigated by the enlight - ened authors of the rococo as the naive enthusiasm of immature adolescents. Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Innocence and naivety really helped us. Times, Sunday Times
Every teenage fantasy, frustration and obsession is here as the naive youngsters exchange their drab existences for an alcohol-induced escapism.
At worst, he would construe it as an act of such unutterable naivety that it could only be interpreted as being malign in intent. BLACK EAGLES
Also, a naive reading would imagine that this knowledge on the fringe is the easiest to change.
They're there to tell us that our political idealism is naive. Times, Sunday Times
In keeping with the general entropic tendency of the universe, all my futile efforts at gathering and retaining, my naïve tendency toward nest-egging, fly directly in the face of the entire universe itself!
Anyway, sorry, hoodathunk, maybe I'm naive, but I believe that you're being oversuspicious. gopny Says: Think Progress
Please do warn innocent and comparatively naive people about these English parasites. Times, Sunday Times
His choice of words has occasionally been politically naive, but his views are sincerely held and his arguments are internally coherent.
Raised and home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents, she lands in Illinois completely naive to the cliques and rules of high school.
Don't be naive; don't think they had a potpourri of solid, compelling reasons and they just emphasized this one because it was one they knew would be the "catchiest," although this is what they would have us believe. "Rarely has a document from the supposedly hidden world of intelligence had such an impact as the National Intelligence Estimate released this week."
i still don't think the riddler would work. the real riddler is too soft for nolan's dark world, and a hard edged riddler would be too similar to the joker. the only way i could see it work is if the joker masterminded the plans even if offscreen and the riddler is a naive, narcissistic pawn. Check This Out: Awesome Fan Made Dark Knight Sequel Poster! « FirstShowing.net
State authorities are no longer naive to the possibilities enabled by mobile communication media, and the power-counterpower conflict in urban areas will involve a complex mix of political tactics, technology regulation, social practices that is likely to differ in significant ways from culture to culture: Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Cyber-Urban Activism in Indonesia
This naive offer, made without the hope of recompense, though a byzant would not have paid for the special grace of this speech; and the modesty of the gesture with which the poor girl turned to him gained the heart of the jeweller, who would have liked to be able to put this bondswoman into the skin of a queen, and Paris at her feet. Droll Stories — Volume 3
But anything more general just smacks, to me, of a naivety about the historical construction of the nation-state.
It would be naive to think that this could solve all the area's problems straight away.
To think he has gone this long without slipping one passed the goalie is naive. “Quantum of Solace” Almost Featured a James Bond Jr. | /Film
This style of prothesis without apodosis is very common in Arabic and should be preserved in translation, as it adds a naïveté to the style. The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
We are not naive about the many threats and dangers there are today to world peace and security, nor about the urgent need to do something about them.
Immigration, at least from the Arab-American point of view, was just more innocent andI don't want to say naïvebut it had a kind of hopefulness and optimism that wasn't as charged by issues of race and politics as it is now. Diana Abu-Jaber discusses her true identity with Origin
I think that pacifism and appeasement are the politics of the naive and foolish.
The story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent seemed a naïve myth.
Shaila Kaku was also here in Blr so the Udyapan was a full fledged perfectly done celebration complete with homa, havan and naivedhya of 5 sweets! Archive 2008-11-01
It's probably the naivety of youth that resulted in her sad, tragic and untimely death. Times, Sunday Times
Forget the stereotype of the naive female student who answers an ad and ends up on the streets.
She rejected it at first, thinking naively she could continue being a political journalist until she heard the whole nation cackle with laughter. Times, Sunday Times
It is naive to think that non-Hindus will worry about issues which concern Hindus.
Standard economic theory would dismiss the effort as naive and counterproductive.
In the first instance she arranges the marriage of Elgiva to the sensitive and naive king.
He tells his naively unbelieving sister which her father "gives his potent regiment to a trull. Philadelphia Reflections: Shakspere Society of Philadelphia
A good act or the naivety of innocence? Times, Sunday Times
Despite some uninformed portrayals of them, most offenders are anything but naïve, and can quickly sense any attempt to dissimulate.
We aren't naïve enough to believe that simply wearing causey clothing will change the world, but it's a way of becoming the change we'd like to make in the world. David D. Burstein: 1 Million Pairs of Shoes Bought, 1 Million Pairs of Shoes Given Away
It is hard to credit the political naivety of this. Times, Sunday Times
His style has been loosely described as expressionistic, surrealistic, naive, and primitive, but was also strongly influenced by the urban realism of John Sloan.
The original novel caught the ingenuous babble of its protagonist, naively recording the happy circumstances of her household as her master closed in on her.
The main character naivety is good for the plot and funny, but it makes impossible for me to relate to her. Simple Meme: What Book Are You Reading Now?
Funnily enough, Korngold had a similar generosity, naivety and overambition; and Korngold is often criticised in a remarkably similar way. Return of the native...
My parents have always loved naive and folk art. Times, Sunday Times
All the savagely planned words suddenly seemed amateur, naïve. THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
I wouldn't really want to speculate on the level of naivety or lack of naivety.
They might not grab the headlines of the national news media but they will a lot harder to dismiss as anarchists or well-meaning but naive cranks.
The naive and innocent are lured away by unscrupulous agents. Times, Sunday Times
As we shall see below, it is naive to assume that most media messages actually do have the effects that their creators intend, even when the audiences are deemed to be unsophisticated and lacking in education.
His naivety was so deep that he was able to create a paradise of enchanted magic.
I saw your smiling mask, pretending naivete, no matter what is goody - goody.
It's wonderfully at odds with the naivety of the fairytale strings and Clark's choirgirl vocals, conjuring up a hazy world in which nothing seems quite stable, a state helped along by the addition of magnificently oddball heavy riffs and stuttering synths. St Vincent: Strange Mercy – review
Actually, however, it is too naive to assume simply that ` jargon 'equals "long words" even though we can see why we feel the temptation, when the enemy called taxmen inland revenue officials or when mockery devises artificial bipartite abdominal integument as a replacement for trousers. VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 2
His books and films earned him a following among naive romantics, and he became a guest on national television shows.
We may be inexperienced but naivety is not a characteristic we possess in abundance.
It is naive to suggest that the adverse effects of thalidomide would have been picked up earlier had the proposed system been in operation. Times, Sunday Times
You need the reader to understand at a glance that some character is supposed to be an intimidating badass, or a provincial boor, or a smarmy selfish jerk, or a naive idealist, or an uptight bluenose, the quickest way to do this is by cuing the reader by invoking some stereotype complex that includes these traits. The Wisdom of Clowns
To the Australians these 'chooms' seemed naive, unworldly, and deferential.

How To Use Naive In A Sentence

Report a problem

Please indicate a type of error

Additional information (optional):