Innocent

How to spell innocent

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce innocent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does innocent mean?

1. adjectiveNot guilty of a crime or wrongdoing; free from blame.
2. adjectiveLacking guile or harmful intent; naive and well meaning.

Innocent in a sentence

• The jury found him innocent on all charges.

• It was an innocent question, but it touched a sore subject.

• She insisted she was innocent and had never seen the documents.

• Her innocent remark about the budget caused an unexpected stir.

Where does innocent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin innocens, the genitive of which is innocentem, meaning literally 'not harming' or 'harmless'. It was formed from the negative prefix in- ('not') joined to nocens, the present participle of the verb nocere, which meant 'to harm, hurt or injure'. So at its root an innocent person was simply one who did no harm, and only later did the sense narrow to 'free from guilt' and then to 'naive or guileless'. English took the word in through Old French during the 1300s, originally in legal and religious contexts. That same nocere root still lives inside the everyday relatives 'innocuous' (harmless), 'noxious' (harmful) and 'nuisance', which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is noc, not 'nos'.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• noc (from Latin nocere: to harm)
• -ent (adjective suffix)