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A stock character in opera, theater, and literature. She is a girl or young woman who is endearingly wholesome and innocent. Very similar to the girl next door.

She is generally portrayed as sweet, gentle, virtuous, beautiful, demure, with the wide-eyed innocence of a child and she is very often naive. She is often the victim of the libertine, whom she may have mistaken for the hero. Often she still lives with her parents, owing to her youth and naivete.
She is usually the foil for the dangerously seductive femme fatale.
She is often involved in a romantic subplot, usually with the boy next door and the romance is typically innocent and chaste.
The ingenue is typically played by a lyric soprano in opera and musicals.
The ingenue includes the following characters:

Joanna in Sweeney Todd
Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz
Giselle in Enchanted
Pollyanna
Snow White
Rapunzel
Cosette in Les Miserables
Sandy in Grease
Maria in West Side Story
Christine in Phantom of the Opera
Ophelia in Hamlet
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Ariel in The Little Mermaid
Belle in Beauty and the Beast
Penny in Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Mimi in La Boheme
Tatiana in Eugene Onegin
ingenue by Lorelili July 7, 2011
Related Words
A female character in drama or literature. She is a sweet, pretty, if somewhat naive, young woman. To our modern eyes, she's often seen as this meek little mouse.

The ingenue is played by a light soprano in opera or musicals.
Judy Garland's protrayal of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is the epitome of an ingenue.
ingenue by Lorelili October 29, 2005

ingénue 

1. She's quite ingénue to be a Journalist.
2. She's ingénue for her age of girls.
ingénue by Irene17 December 14, 2020

abandonware 

n. software that is no longer sold or supported by the original publisher / developer, often found as free downloads on the internet because it cannot be obtained elsewhere. Not legal, but often seen as morally acceptable because the company that made it is no longer selling the title, nor releasing it as freeware, therefore abandonware is "keeping the game alive", so to speak.
Doom II is not abandonware because id still sells it, while The Incredible Machine is not sold, therefore is abandonware.
abandonware by Spoom October 24, 2003
Word of the Day on July 11, 2026

Foot prisons 

Socks. Annoying, sweat-causing, non-barefoot enducing, everyday socks.
The first thing I do when I take off my shoes, is rip off the foot prisons I had to wear inside them. That's why I prefer flip flops, even in winter!
Foot prisons by Jackalope Hunter December 13, 2022
Word of the Day on July 10, 2026

cornholio 

Ruler of Lake Titicaca. Rumored to have a bunghole that gets very angry if it does not receive toilet paper. Cornholio the Great is often seen walking around with his shirt over his head and his hands in the air, chanting songs about his power, and his bunghole.
"I am Cornholio! You do not want to face the wrath of my bunghole, for I need TP!"
Butthead: Shut up, Beavis! (uh huh huh huh)
Beavis: Um, okay. (heh heh heh heh).
cornholio by AYB July 20, 2003
Word of the Day on July 9, 2026