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
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
10 June 2026
Kerry Washington’s gold Oscar de la Renta halter neck dress called back to ’70s glam, while Chase Infiniti was every part the ingenue in a bubblegum Louis Vuitton gown—accessorized to boot with a tulle and organza stole.
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Hannah Jackson,
Vogue,
2 June 2026
In wrestling terms, Ghost plays the babyface ingenue to her more jaded collaborators’ heels.
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Judy Berman,
Time,
15 Apr. 2026
Zendaya reinvented herself from Disney Channel ingenue into bona fide superstar with her two-time Emmy-winning performance as teen drug addict Rue in seasons 1 and 2.
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Brendan Le,
PEOPLE,
8 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ingenue
Cite this Entry
“Ingenue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ingenue. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.
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ingenue
noun
