Naive

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  naive \na*ive"\, naive \na*["i]ve"\(n[aum]*[=e]v"), a. [F.
     na["i]f, fem. na["i]ve, fr. L. nativus innate, natural,
     native. See {Native}, and cf. {Na["i]f}.]
     1. Having native or unaffected simplicity; ingenuous;
        artless; frank; as, na["i]ve manners; a na["i]ve person;
        na["i]ve and unsophisticated remarks.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Having a lack of knowledge, judgment, or experience;
        especially, lacking sophistication in judging the motives
        of others; credulous; as, a naive belief in the honesty of
        politicians.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  naive
       adj 1: marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile
              or worldly experience; "a teenager's naive ignorance
              of life"; "the naive assumption that things can only
              get better"; "this naive simple creature with wide
              friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances" [syn: {naif}]
              [ant: {sophisticated}]
       2: lacking experience of life; "a callow youth of seventeen"
          [syn: {callow}, {inexperienced}, {unsophisticated}]
       3: lacking sophistication [syn: {unsophisticated}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  116 Moby Thesaurus words for "naive":
     artless, awkward, befoolable, blankminded, bluff, blunt,
     born yesterday, budding, callow, candid, childlike, confiding,
     credulous, cullible, deceivable, deludable, dependent, depending,
     dewy, direct, dumb, dupable, easy, empty, empty-headed,
     exploitable, foolable, frank, fresh, gauche, green, groping,
     growing, guileless, gullible, hoaxable, hoodwinkable, humbugable,
     ignorant, immature, impubic, inane, inexperienced, ingenu,
     ingenuous, innocent, intact, juicy, know-nothing, minor, nescient,
     new-fledged, open, openhearted, original, outspoken, persuadable,
     plain, raw, reliant, relying, ripening, sappy, seduceable, simple,
     simplehearted, simpleminded, sincere, single-hearted,
     single-minded, soft, strange to, susceptible, tender, tentative,
     trustful, trusting, trusty, unacquainted, unadult, unaffected,
     unapprized, unartificial, uncomprehending, unconversant, underage,
     undeveloped, unenlightened, unfamiliar, unfledged, unformed,
     unguarded, unilluminated, uninformed, uninitiated, unintelligent,
     unknowing, unlicked, unmellowed, unposted, unreserved, unripe,
     unschooled, unseasoned, unsophisticated, unstudied, unsure,
     unsuspecting, unsuspicious, unversed, unwary, vacuous, vernal,
     victimizable, virginal, without suspicion
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  naive adj. 1. Untutored in the perversities of some particular program
     or system; one who still tries to do things in an intuitive way, rather
     than the right way (in really good designs these coincide, but most
     designs aren't `really good' in the appropriate sense). This trait is
     completely unrelated to general maturity or competence, or even
     competence at any other specific program. It is a sad commentary on the
     primitive state of computing that the natural opposite of this term is
     often claimed to be `experienced user' but is really more like `cynical
     user'. 2. Said of an algorithm that doesn't take advantage of some
     superior but advanced technique, e.g., the {bubble sort}. It may imply
     naivete on the part of the programmer, although there are situations
     where a naive algorithm is preferred, because it is more important to
     keep the code comprehensible than to go for maximum performance. "I know
     the linear search is naive, but in this case the list typically only has
     half a dozen items." Compare {brute force}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  naive
       
          Untutored in the perversities of some particular program or
          system; one who still tries to do things in an intuitive way,
          rather than the right way (in really good designs these
          coincide, but most designs aren't "really good" in the
          appropriate sense).  This trait is completely unrelated to
          general maturity or competence or even competence at any other
          specific program.  It is a sad commentary on the primitive
          state of computing that the natural opposite of this term is
          often claimed to be "experienced user" but is really more like
          "cynical user".
       
          (1994-11-29)