Ingenious vs ingenuous

Ingenious means very clever and inventive, like an ingenious plan. Ingenuous means innocent and trusting, ready to believe what people say.

Ingenious has the I of genius after gen. Ingenuous has a U there, U for unsuspecting.

ingenious adjective

Very clever and original, said of a plan, a design or the person who thought of it.

The engineers came up with an ingenious system for collecting rainwater from the roof.
What an ingenious way to fold a map!

Naive and trusting, quick to believe what others say. It can also mean open and honest, unable to hide what you feel.

The ingenuous newcomer handed his savings to the first broker who promised to double them.
Her ingenuous smile made it clear she suspected nothing.

Ingenuous can also mean open and frank, with nothing held back. This is a good quality, not only a weakness.He gave an ingenuous account of his mistakes, leaving nothing out.
Ingenuous can also describe an attempt that is naive and lacks any subtlety, so anyone can see what is going on.Her ingenuous attempt to hide the broken vase behind a cushion fooled no one.

She found an blank way to fit a desk into her tiny closet.
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ingenious. This is a clever, inventive solution.
The blank tourist believed the man selling a map to buried treasure.
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ingenuous. The tourist is naive and trusts what he is told.
The lawyer's blank question, built to trap the witness in his own timeline, caught him completely off guard.
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ingenious. A question built to trap someone is clever and shrewd, so it is ingenious.
Too blank to play poker, he grinned every time he drew a good card.
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ingenuous. He is so open that he cannot hide his feelings. That is ingenuous.