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Ingenious vs Ingenuous

Ingeniousadjective

showing inventiveness and skill

Full entry for Ingenious

Ingenuousadjective

characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious

Full entry for Ingenuous

The difference

Ingenious means cleverly inventive. Ingenuous means innocent, artless, unable to conceal. An ingenious solution; an ingenuous smile.

How to keep them apart

One letter apart and near-opposite in temperament: ingenious is calculating, ingenuous could not calculate if it tried.

Other pairs worth knowing

All confused pairs · SAT list · GRE list · Full word list