nox-, noxi-, noc-, nui-, nec- +

1. The state, quality, or virtue of being innocent; such as, freedom from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through a lack of knowledge of evil; guiltlessness of a specific legal crime or offense.
2. Freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness: "The accused prisoner proved his innocence."
3. Freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit; simplicity or artlessness.
4. A lack of worldliness or sophistication; harmlessness; innocuousness; naiveté.
5. A lack of knowledge or understanding; ignorance.
6. Freedom from harmfulness; inoffensiveness.

1. An innocent quality or action.
2. Properly, freedom from any quality that can injure; innoxiousness; harmlessness; as the innocence of a medicine which can do no harm.
3. In a moral sense, freedom from crime, sin or guilt; untainted purity of heart and life; unimpaired integrity.
4. Freedom from guilt or evil intentions; simplicity of heart; such as, the innocence of a child.
5. Freedom from the guilt of a particular sin or crime.

This is the sense in which the word is most generally used, for perfect innocence cannot be predicated of man. A man charged with theft or murder may prove his innocence.

1. Uncorrupted by evil, malice, or wrongdoing; sinless: "She was just an innocent child and should not have been harmed."
2. Not guilty of a specific crime or offense; legally blameless: "He was declared innocent of all charges by the judge."
3. Within, allowed by, or sanctioned by the law; lawful.
4. Not dangerous or harmful; innocuous: "It was just an innocent prank and he meant no harm."
5. Candid; straightforward; such as, a child's innocent stare.>BR? 6. Not experienced or worldly; naive; betraying or suggesting no deception or guile.
7. Not exposed to or familiar with something specified; ignorant: "American tourists are wholly innocent of French when they go to Paris."
8. Unaware: "She remained innocent of the complications she had caused."
9. Lacking, deprived, or devoid of something: "He wrote a novel which was innocent of literary merit."
10. A person, especially a child, who is free of evil or sin.
11. A simple, guileless, inexperienced, or unsophisticated person; for example, a very young child.
12. Etymology: from about 1340, "doing no evil, free from sin or guilt"; from Old French innocent (11th century); from Latin innocentem, innocens, "not guilty, harmless, blameless"; from in-, "not" + nocentem, nocens; present participle of nocere, "to harm".

The meaning "free from guilt of a crime or charge" is from 1382. The earliest use was as a noun, "a person who is innocent of sin or evil" from about 1200.

1. In a naively innocent manner; such as, the child smiled at her innocently.
2. Characterized by being free from guilt or sin especially through lack of knowledge of evil.
3. A reference to being blameless; harmless in effect or intention.

1. Having no adverse effect; harmless.
2. Not intended to cause offense or to provoke a strong reaction and unlikely to do so.
3. Not likely to irritate or to offend; inoffensive; such as, an innocuous remark.
3. Uninteresting, not stimulating or significant; pallid; insipid: "We just saw an innocuous movie."

1. Not injurious to physical or mental health.
2. Not causing disapproval: "She made an innocuous remark."
3. Unlikely to harm or tp disturb anyone.
4. Lacking intent or capacity to injure in any way.
5. Without harm; without injurious effects.

Not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility; inoffensive (causing no harm or injury); insipid (lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge).

1. Free from mischievous qualities; innocent; harmless; as an innoxious drug.
2. Not producing evil; harmless in effects; not injurious.
3. Free from crime; pure; innocent.

Harmlessly; without mischief.

1. Harmlessness; innocuous.
2. Freedom from harmful qualities or effects; harmless.

1. Guilty, criminal; having a tendency to cause harm or injury.
2. Harmful; mischievous; injurious; doing harm: "The criminal had nocent qualities which had to be stopped."

1. Harmful; likely to cause injury or damage.
2. Likely to cause damage or injury; harmful; noxious.

1. Injurious to physical or mental health: "Many people in China suffer from noxious chemical wastes in their rivers."
2. Physically harmful; harmful to life or health, especially by being poisonous.
3. Likely to cause moral, spiritual, or social harm or corruption; such as, noxious ideas.
4. Disgusting; very unpleasant; such as, a noxious smell.

1. In a detrimental manner.
2. Characterized by being harmful to living things; injuriously to health.

1. The quality of being noxious.
2. Harmfulness; the quality that injures, impairs, or destroys.
2. The quality that corrupts or perverts; such as, the noxiousness of doctrines.