ingénu
French, adjective/ɛ̃.ʒe.ny/
ingénu is spelled I-N-G-É-N-U (6 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written French, the 66,599th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ingénu is a French adjective meaning “ingenuous; guileless” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Qui a de la simplicité et presque de la naïveté dans la franchise”.
What does ingénu mean in English?
adjective
- 1
ingenuous; guileless
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui a de la simplicité et presque de la naïveté dans la franchise.
noun: 1. Homme né libre, dans le droit romain, qui n’a jamais été dans une légitime servitude (s’emploie par opposition à affranchi, comme le mot libre par opposition à esclave). 2. Personne simple et presque naïve dans la franchise.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of ingénu
- ingénue feminine
- ingénus masculine plural
- ingénues feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce ingénu?
- /ɛ̃.ʒe.ny/
- \ɛ̃.ʒe.ny\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to ingénu
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is ingénu in French?
ingénu appears about once in every 4 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).