Innocent means free from guilt or blame. When a person is innocent of a crime, they didn't commit it, no matter what anyone suspects. In court, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, which means the burden of proving wrongdoing falls on the accuser, not the accused.

The word also describes someone who lacks experience with the harsh or unpleasant parts of life. An innocent child might not understand why people sometimes lie or hurt each other. This kind of innocence isn't the same as being naive or foolish. It simply means not yet encountering certain difficulties or complexities of the world.

When something seems innocent, it appears harmless or well-intentioned. An innocent question might accidentally touch on a sensitive topic, but the person asking didn't mean any harm. An innocent mistake happens without bad intentions, like accidentally using someone else's pencil because you thought it was yours.

The opposite of innocent is guilty when discussing blame, or knowing or experienced when discussing worldliness. Someone who protests their innocence is claiming they did nothing wrong.