Naivety

Naivety (or naïvety or naïveté) is the state of being naïve, that is to say, having or showing a lack of experience, understanding or sophistication, often in a context where one neglects pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. One who is naive may be called a naïf.

Etymology

In early use, the word naive meant "natural or innocent", and did not connote ineptitude. As a French adjective, it is spelled naïve or naïf. French adjectives have grammatical gender; naïf is used with masculine nouns and naïve with feminine nouns. The French noun is naïveté.

The dots above the i are a diaeresis (see also Ï). As an unitalicized English word, "naive" is now the more usual spelling, although "naïve" is unidiomatic rather than incorrect; "naïf" often represents the French masculine, but has a secondary meaning as an artistic style. “Naive” is now normally pronounced as two syllables, with the stress on the second, in the French manner.

The noun form can be written as naivety, naïvety, naïveté, naïvete, or naiveté.