How to Use naive in a Sentence

naive

adjective
  • The plan seems a little naive.
  • She asked a lot of naive questions.
  • If you're naive enough to believe him, you'll believe anyone.
  • I was young and naive at the time, and I didn't think anything bad could happen to me.
  • These ideas are naive but wise and rich.
    — Kevin Sintumuang, Outside, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Stodder told me that this now seems naive.
    — Nick Miroff, The Atlantic, 17 Jan. 2026
  • Again, maybe a little too naive there.
    — Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Feb. 2026
  • McGuire is not naive, or blind, to any of this.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Levine sounds almost naive about the depth of this love.
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 13 Jan. 2026
  • These things get passed around via emails from one gullible and naive nitwit to the next.
    — Tom Margenau, Dallas News, 13 Sep. 2020
  • The three of us aren’t naive about the challenge of the work ahead.
    — Gov. Spencer Cox, Gov. Wes Moore, TIME, 5 Sep. 2024
  • But this assessment may have turned out to be too naive.
    — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 19 May 2026
  • America is at once too smart and too stupid to be that naive.
    — Nick Canepa Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Aug. 2020
  • Russia is a tyranny, which makes some of us feel naive.
    — Max Hastings, Twin Cities, 11 Jan. 2026
  • This was naive, and would only lead to greater misery.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Apr. 2026
  • The impulse to shop your values isn’t naive.
    — Patrick Van Esch, The Conversation, 25 May 2026
  • Coming from someone else, some of those words might seem naive.
    — Mary Schmich Chicago Tribune (tns), Star Tribune, 30 July 2020
  • Call me naive, but this whole concept is tough to fit into my brain.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 May 2022
  • At the same time, the body’s production of naive cells slows down.
    — Sara Reardon, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Sep. 2021
  • But as this past week suggests, that question now sounds rather naive.
    — Emily Jane Fox, The Hive, 22 June 2017
  • Sure, delegate, trust the team, but don’t be naive.
    — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2025
  • In this slang, a fruit was ripe for the picking, just like a naive person.
    — Joseph Lamour, Bon Appétit, 22 June 2022
  • Things are going a bit too well for Mia, who is more naive than her friend.
    — Time, 7 Dec. 2022
  • Protecting his naive and stupid friend.
    — Gwen Faulkenberry, Arkansas Online, 18 Jan. 2026
  • Why portray Dorothy as a doe-eyed ding-a-ling; as not just naive but dumb?
    — Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair, 12 Jan. 2026
  • And so the most naive way to do this is just to repeat the data a whole bunch of times.
    — Quanta Magazine, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Don’t be naive or give anyone the power to make choices for you.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 13 Nov. 2024
  • Anyone who thinks a space trip is a run-of-the-mill, roller-coaster ride is naive.
    — Jim Clash, Forbes, 16 June 2022
  • But these juvenile white sharks may be naive to orcas.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2025
  • The chances seemed so remote at the time that his remarks were almost naive.
    — Scott Harrison, latimes.com, 19 Oct. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'naive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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