naive - use in sentences

Used with adjective complement

  • seem: Oh, she was willing enough, just seemed naive, not knowing what was what.
  • appear: The images appear immediately naive, accessible, simple.

Infinitive complement

  • believe: Most of them were naive enough to believe that the new system would be better than the old.
  • assume: It would be naive to assume that archeology could provide physical evidence of Macbeth himself.
  • suppose: It would be naive to suppose that Gurthiern had anything to do with the real Vortigern, other than perhaps sharing his name.
  • think: Tolkien is naive to think he's escaping anything.
  • expect: In retrospect it was perhaps naive to expect schools within the dual system to opt for change at least in the short term.
  • suggest: However it would be naive to suggest that the only pressure to move was coming from the Bible itself.

Modifies a noun

  • realism: For the sake of argument, let us adopt naive realism.
  • optimism: All this must not, however, lead to a naive optimism.
  • realist: I do not think many historians today are naive realists.
  • idealism: Nevertheless, there is a strong streak of naive idealism in Bush's vision.
  • fool: And like a naive fool, I accepted his appreciation and walked into them.
  • assumption: Freud's theory largely undermines the naive assumption of symbolic equivalence.

Modifying Another Word

  • hopelessly: But it is just hopelessly naive to expect the US to behave routinely like some sort of global philanthropist.
  • charmingly: These songs are charmingly naive with some unintentionally funny lyrics ( I hope that's what they are!
  • politically: To me this is politically naive in the extreme.
  • incredibly: Furthermore, his suggestions for what might replace the UN are incredibly naive.
  • somewhat: Don't worry, I would regard you as somewhat naive if you just accepted them without proof.

Preposition: in

  • extreme: Saying we should throw more public money at our problems is naive in the extreme.

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.