ingenue

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈænʒəˌnu/ UK /ˈãʒeɪnjuː/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
an innocent or unsophisticated young woman, especially as a stage role

The director cast her as the ingenue, all wide eyes and trembling earnestness.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an innocent or... innocent naif maiden debutante

Opposites

sophisticate

Word family

Related forms ingenuous ingenuousness genuine

Etymology

From French ingénue, feminine of ingénu ('ingenuous, artless'), from Latin ingenuus ('native, freeborn, frank'), from in- ('in') + gignere ('to beget').

ingenuus Latin gignere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# ingenue

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈænʒəˌnu/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈãʒeɪnjuː/

## Meanings
1. an innocent or unsophisticated young woman, especially as a stage role

## Examples
- The director cast her as the ingenue, all wide eyes and trembling earnestness.

## Synonyms
- innocent
- naif
- maiden
- debutante

## Antonyms
- sophisticate

## Related Forms
- ingenuous
- ingenuousness
- genuine

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: ingenuus
- Root: gignere

## Etymology
From French ingénue, feminine of ingénu ('ingenuous, artless'), from Latin ingenuus ('native, freeborn, frank'), from in- ('in') + gignere ('to beget').

## AI Etymology
ingenue comes from French ingénue, feminine of ingénu ('ingenuous, artless'), from Latin ingenuus ('native, freeborn, frank'), from in- ('in') + gignere ('to beget'). Morphologically, the prefixed shape matters: the initial element belongs to the recorded formation and helps explain the modern form's surface analysis. In present English, the noun sense is "an innocent or unsophisticated young woman, especially as a stage role", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as ingenuous, ingenuousness, and genuine. Its semantic neighborhood includes innocent, naif, maiden, and debutante, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Latin ingenuus and Latin gignere.

## Topics
- People & Society

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