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.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
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)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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