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
Kyle McGovern, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025
Only ingenues believe the fund might avoid capture by the incumbent president to advance a partisan political agenda.
—Armstrong Williams, Oc Register, 10 Oct. 2025
That remark — coupled with the image of the ingenue Tilly — generated an outpouring of fury, anxiety, fascination and lust.
—Gene Maddaus, Variety, 8 Oct. 2025
But like Swift, Liz was the ingenue who made everything sticky by growing up.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 Oct. 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 28 Oct. 2025.
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ingenue
noun
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