innocently

adverb

1
as in sincerely
without any attempt to impress by deception or exaggeration "You look nice," she commented innocently

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in chastely
with purity of thought and deed very young children approach the world so innocently

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of innocently The Network Started With A Missing File The origins of the incident started innocently. — Ron Schmelzer, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026 Their amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent. — Ann Manov, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026 It was innocently posted by motorsports reporter Cole Cusumano, who was there covering the race. — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026 The deciding goal started innocently enough on a Marcel Sabitzer corner kick, albeit after the World Cup’s still-odd hydration breaks. — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 17 June 2026 The play started innocently enough with Tab Ramos bouncing a one-hop pass to Paul Caligiuri, who played the ball off his chest 40 yards from goal. — Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2026 There’s a particularly tragic scene where Natalia, lured on holiday by Elsa, spots a small child innocently giggling at the table across from her at dinner. — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2026 For the person who innocently took her rugby kit to the hospital four years ago, representing her country would feel like a just reward for Balogun’s perseverance and strength of will. — George Ramsay, New York Times, 7 May 2026 Her pictures, which start innocently enough from the puppy-dog idea, get increasingly demeaning. — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 20 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for innocently
  1. sincerely
  2. chastely
  3. openly
  4. purely
  5. genuinely
  6. properly
  7. naively
  8. morally
Adverb
  • Colquitt sincerely believes that her work can restore the dignity too often denied people in their last days.
    — John Semley, Harpers Magazine, 28 July 2026
  • But the results and the action on the field were second to the experience for Baldwin, who was sincerely present in the moment during the two days of All-Star Game activities.
    — Chad Bishop, AJC.com, 15 July 2026
Definition of sincerely
Adverb
  • Take The Music Lesson, a study of a young woman playing the virginal, closely watched by a gentleman, which Graham-Dixon reads as a depiction of Collegiants chastely performing and singing psalms.
    — Clare Bucknell, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
Definition of chastely
Adverb
  • Wednesday’s hierarchy openly predicted bumps in the road and one of them was felt on August 1, a week before the first competitive game of the new season.
    — Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Saudi Arabia and Turkey — two nations that have been openly hostile toward one another for much of the last decade — pledged to go to war in each other’s defense.
    — Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of openly
Adverb
  • The risk of job cuts becomes more real if health systems adopt AI purely as a cost-cutting lever rather than a capacity-expanding one.
    — Mudit Garg, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026
  • These accounts underscore ongoing efforts to improve access for small and mid‑sized importers, pushing back on narratives that the process is purely skewed toward corporate giants.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of purely
Adverb
  • Traffic in the waterway remains at less than a fifth of pre-war levels, and no genuinely safe shipping route exists in the region, according to a maritime intelligence group.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 15 Aug. 2026
  • The rooms The property features 55 rooms designed to deliver a genuinely comfortable take on camping.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of genuinely
Adverb
  • As one of the most important organs in the body, the heart needs to function properly under all circumstances, even during stressful situations such as imminent danger.
    — Isabella Backman, Hartford Courant, 14 Aug. 2026
  • To properly rebalance, Beijing would need to reconstruct the fiscal model on which every province and municipality depends, accept the resulting collapse in local government revenues, and absorb mass layoffs.
    — Michael B. G. Froman, Foreign Affairs, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of properly
Adverb
  • Her parents naively thought these nuns would look after their kid for a couple of weeks.
    — Zachary Fletcher, USA Today, 7 July 2026
  • When the United States invaded the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, Twain naively imagined that the country would be liberated and turned into a republic.
    — Ron Chernow, The Atlantic, 2 July 2026
Definition of naively
Adverb
  • Deadline’s Full Coverage Of Disney’s D23 Fan Event The VisionQuest also features James Spader as Ultron, Todd Stashwick as the morally ambiguous mercenary Paladin and Faran Tahir reprising his role of Raz from the MCU kickstarter pic Iron Man.
    — Katie Campione, Deadline, 14 Aug. 2026
  • The good guys protecting us from people who want to work and live here will continue their morally upright quest by electrocuting their foes into submission.
    — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of morally

Browse Nearby Words

innocent
innocently
innocents
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Innocently.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/innocently. Accessed 16 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of zeugma

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Words of the Week - Aug. 14

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of a green cube out of place in a lineup of red spheres
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Vol. 2 Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.
See All