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Suspect vs Ingenuous - What's the difference?

suspect | ingenuous |

As adjectives the difference between suspect and ingenuous

is that suspect is viewed with suspicion; suspected while ingenuous is naive and trusting.

As a verb suspect

is to imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof.

As a noun suspect

is a person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.

suspect

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof.
    • to suspect the presence of disease
  • * Milton
    • From her hand I could suspect no ill.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected .}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected , but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.}}
  • To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone).
    • to suspect the truth of a story
    (Addison)
  • To believe (someone) to be guilty.
  • To have suspicion.
  • (obsolete) To look up to; to respect.

    • Synonyms

    * (imagine or suppose to be true) imagine, suppose, think * (sense) distrust, doubt * (believe to be guilty) accuse, point the finger at

    Noun

    (wikipedia suspect) (en noun)
  • A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.
    • Round up the usual suspects.'' — ''Casablanca

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Viewed with suspicion; suspected.
  • * (rfdate) (John Milton):
    • What I can do or offer is suspect .
  • * '>citation
    • In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.
  • (nonstandard) Viewing with suspicion; suspecting.
  • * 2004 , Will Nickell, letter to the editor of Field & Stream , Volume CIX Number 8 (December 2004–January 2005), page 18:
    • Now I’m suspect of other advice that I read in your pages.

    Synonyms

    * (viewed with suspicion) dodgy (informal), doubtful, dubious, fishy (informal), suspicious

    Related terms

    * suspicion * suspicious

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms ----

    ingenuous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Naive and trusting.
  • Demonstrating childlike simplicity.
  • * 1919 ,
    • "Do you mean to say you didn't leave your wife for another woman?"
    "Of course not."
    "On your word of honour?"
    I don't know why I asked for that. It was very ingenuous of me.
  • Unsophisticated; simple.
  • Unable to mask one's feelings.
  • Straightforward, candid, open, and frank.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * disingenuous

    Usage notes

    Do not confuse with ingenious.