ingenuous
/ɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/
"ingenuous" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ingenuous” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Naive and trusting.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ingenuous · ingenuous · English
ingenuous · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ingenuous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ingenuous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ingenuous is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
ingenuous has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin ingenuus (“of noble character, frank”). Doublet of ingenu. The correct English form is ingenuous, spelled I-N-G-E-N-U-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Naive and trusting.
- 2Demonstrating childlike simplicity.
- 3Unsophisticated; clumsy or obvious.
- 4Unable to mask one's feelings.
- 5Straightforward, candid, open, frank.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ingenuous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Do you mean to say you didn't leave your wife for another woman?" "Of course not." "On your word of honour?" I don't know why I asked for that. It was very ingenuous of me.
The apparent contradictions in his behaviour should therefore be discounted as ingenuous attempts to extricate himself from the consequences of an intellectual position which he once adopted but was never really his by intimate conviction.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin ingenuus (“of noble character, frank”). Doublet of ingenu.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.