ingenue
noun
Did you know?
Although Becky Sharp, the ambitious heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel Vanity Fair, is not usually thought of as innocent or naive, the author used ingenue to describe her as having those qualities. Thackeray's use was attributive: "When attacked sometimes, Becky had a knack of adopting a demure ingenue air, under which she was most dangerous." The word ingenue typically refers to someone who is innocent to the ways of the world, so you probably won't be too surprised to learn that it shares an ancestor—Latin ingenuus—with ingenuous, a word meaning "showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness." More directly, our ingenue comes from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu, meaning "ingenuous."
Examples of ingenue in a Sentence
Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 May 2025
These hopes and expectations betrayed the innocence of ingenues.
—Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 13 Feb. 2025
The one-time ingenue made gallows humor out of her ruination, glorying in the cracks and croaks of her voice.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 31 Jan. 2025
But Demi losing to an ingenue was a perfect Substance-worthy twist in itself.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ingenue
Cite this Entry
“Ingenue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ingenue. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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ingenue
noun
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