4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Naive  \Na"["i]ve`\,  a.  [F.  na["i]f,  fem.  na["i]ve,  fr  L. 
  nativus  innate,  natural,  native.  See  {Native},  and  cf 
  {Na["i]f}.] 
  Having  native  or  unaffected  simplicity;  ingenuous;  artless; 
  frank;  as  na["i]ve  manners;  a  na["i]ve  person;  na["i]ve  and 
  unsophisticated  remarks. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  naive 
  adj  1:  marked  by  or  showing  unaffected  simplicity  and  lack  of  guile 
  or  worldly  experience;  "a  teenager's  naive  ignorance 
  of  life";  "the  naive  assumption  that  things  can  only 
  get  better";  "this  naive  simple  creature  with  wide 
  friendly  eyes  so  eager  to  believe  appearances"  [syn:  {naif}] 
  [ant:  {sophisticated}] 
  2:  lacking  experience  of  life;  "a  callow  youth  of  seventeen" 
  [syn:  {callow},  {inexperienced},  {unsophisticated}] 
  3:  lacking  sophistication  [syn:  {unsophisticated}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  naive  adj  1.  Untutored  in  the  perversities  of  some  particular 
  program  or  system;  one  who  still  tries  to  do  things  in  an  intuitive  way 
  rather  than  the  right  way  (in  really  good  designs  these  coincide,  but  most 
  designs  aren't  `really  good'  in  the  appropriate  sense).  This  trait  is 
  completely  unrelated  to  general  maturity  or  competence,  or  even  competence 
  at  any  other  specific  program.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  primitive 
  state  of  computing  that  the  natural  opposite  of  this  term  is  often  claimed 
  to  be  `experienced  user'  but  is  really  more  like  `cynical  user'.  2.  Said 
  of  an  algorithm  that  doesn't  take  advantage  of  some  superior  but  advanced 
  technique,  e.g.,  the  {bubble  sort}.  It  may  imply  naivete  on  the  part  of 
  the  programmer,  although  there  are  situations  where  a  naive  algorithm  is 
  preferred,  because  it  is  more  important  to  keep  the  code  comprehensible 
  than  to  go  for  maximum  performance.  "I  know  the  linear  search  is  naive, 
  but  in  this  case  the  list  typically  only  has  half  a  dozen  items."  Compare 
  {brute  force}. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  naive 
 
  Untutored  in  the  perversities  of  some  particular  program  or 
  system;  one  who  still  tries  to  do  things  in  an  intuitive  way 
  rather  than  the  right  way  (in  really  good  designs  these 
  coincide,  but  most  designs  aren't  "really  good"  in  the 
  appropriate  sense).  This  trait  is  completely  unrelated  to 
  general  maturity  or  competence  or  even  competence  at  any  other 
  specific  program.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  primitive 
  state  of  computing  that  the  natural  opposite  of  this  term  is 
  often  claimed  to  be  "experienced  user"  but  is  really  more  like 
  "cynical  user". 
 
  (1994-11-29) 
 
 

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