Innocent is a negative word, expressing less than righteous, upright, or virtuous, which imply knowledge of good and evil, with free choice of the good. A little child or a lamb is innocent; a tried and faithful man is righteous, upright, virtuous.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

moral Moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon.
innocent From this evidence it follows that he is innocent.
righteous A good Muslim strives to be good and righteous.
chaste "I'm not an incel," Tom insisted. "I'm chaste."

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
virtuous		rising
moral		rising
innocent		rising
righteous		rising
chaste		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: just¹, good¹, pure¹
5 letters: right¹, clean¹, moral², noble², godly², pyore
6 letters: decent², worthy², modest², chaste¹
7 letters: virtual³, sinless
8 letters: innocent³, virginal³
9 letters: continent³, righteous², honorable⁴, exemplary⁴, blameless²
10 letters: honourable⁴, upstanding³
11 letters: uprighteous

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (moral² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: vertueux
Italiano: virtuoso
Deutsch: tugendhaft