innocence Hear it!

innocence Definition

in·no·cence (in′ə səns)

noun

  1. the quality or state of being innocent; specif.,
    1. freedom from sin or moral wrong
    2. freedom from legal guilt
    3. freedom from guile or cunning; simplicity
    4. lack of sophistication; naiveté
    5. harmlessness
    6. ignorance
  2. Archaic an innocent person
  3. ☆ bluet

Etymology: OFr < L innocentia

innocence Synonyms

innocence

n.

  1. Freedom from guilt

    guiltlessness, blamelessness, integrity, probity, impeccability, inculpability, clear conscience, faultlessness, clean hands*; see also honesty 1.

    Antonyms guilt*, culpability, dishonesty.

  2. Freedom from guile

    guilelessness, artlessness, naiveté, frankness, candor, candidness, simplicity, unaffectedness, plainness, forthrightness, ingenuousness, trustfulness, credulity, harmlessness, inoffensiveness; see also simplicity 2, sincerity.

    Antonyms trickery*, shrewdness, wariness.

  3. Lack of experience

    purity, virginity, naiveté; see chastity, ignorance 1.

innocence Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • feign: Reaching the height of ruthless ambition is achieved by feigning innocence.
  • plead: Fines are paid on the spot, usually after the driver has pleaded innocence and tried to knock down the cost of the fine.
  • prove: Police will have to prove innocence Times Online, UK - 1 hour ago By Frances Gibb, Legal Editor.
  • lose: The power of this holy night Dispels all evil, washes guilt away, Restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy.
  • capture: It's a nice way of capturing the innocence of film-making.
  • claim: He allowed for the creation of a three man Ad Hoc Committee to review the cases of those who claimed innocence.

Adjective modifier

  • childlike: All the fun of the fair, with non of the childlike innocence.
  • child-like: Having been isolated by its island location from contact with humanity, the dodo greeted the new visitors with a child-like innocence.
  • youthful: The picture of youthful innocence, the duo were tailor made for the record buyers of era.
  • primal: Matilda once more ties primal innocence to that anciently worshiped rebirth of the world in springtime: at this Easter of the Vision.
  • childish: It was the childish innocence of kids - untainted by politics, prejudices or principles, ignorant of everything except the here and now.
  • lost: Shame here is pictured as a moment of lost innocence.

Modifies a noun

  • project: Examples of these can be found on various Innocence Project websites.

Noun used with modifier

  • childhood: The sorrow arises from the reality that destroys the illusion childhood innocence creates about life.

Possessives

  • client: Lawyers sometimes need a system attacked, in order to prove their client's innocence.

Preposition: of

  • childhood: It was a glorification of the innocence of childhood.
  • youth: This moving drama is about the naive innocence of youth set against the harsh reality of life.
  • charge: No, I would move heaven and earth to demonstrate my innocence of the charge.
  • child: There are bad people out there preying on the innocence of children for their evil ends.
  • man: How would Jesus react when faced with the evidence insisting on the innocence of these men?
innocence Quotes

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. SeeAchebe 2:18.

—Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.

—Golding, Sir William (Gerald)

They represented tomeanabsolute idea of thefirst state of innocence, before man knew how to sin.

—Behan, Brendan Francis

Ignorance is not innocence but sin.

—Browning, Robert

The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech.We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.

—Rodriguez, Richard

   Innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself.

—Didion,Joan

Je ne suis pas innocente. L'innocence est une science du sublime. Et je ne suis qu'au tout de¤  but de l'apprentissage. I am not innocent.Innocence is a science of thesublime. And I am only at the very beginning of the apprenticeship.

—Cixous, He¤  le'  ne

Nay, droop not, fellows; innocence should be bold.

—Massinger, Philip

Fair quiet, have I found thee here, And Innocence thy Sister dear! Mistaken long, I sought you then In busy companies of men.

—Marvell, Andrew

English children have lost their innocence, for their first lessons have been in the exploitation of their adult slave.

—Greer, Germaine

Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a wordöthe men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages Lasting a little while longer: Never such innocence again.

—Larkin, Philip Arthur

Nor turned I ween Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial love refused: Whatever hypocrites austerely talk Of purity and place and innocence, Defaming as impure what God declares Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.

—Milton,John

For I had expected always Some brightness to hold in trust, Some final innocence To save from dust

—Spender, Sir Stephen Harold

The secret motive of the absent-minded is to be innocent while guilty. Absent-mindedness is spurious innocence.

—Bellow, Saul

Consider, Sir, how should you like, though conscious of your innocence, to be tried before a jury for a capital crime, once a week.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

It had never occurred to Giles that there was something perfectly sensible about wanting to hold onto innocence. He had alwaysgone in for the idea that since we only pass this way once, experience counts for everything.

—Wilson, A(ndrew) N(orman)

When the parish priest rebuked him for his celibacy, saying it would lead him into debaucheryand sin, hesaid that a man who had to be muzzled bya wife as a protection against debauchery was not worthy of the joy of innocence. After that people began to treat him with priestly respect.

—O'Flaherty, Liam