what is the difference between naked and nude?

Answer 1

From Webster's New World Dictionary:

NAKED - adj. 1. 1a. completely unclothed; bare; nude 1b. uncovered; exposed (said of parts of the body) 2. lacking clothing, means of support, etc.; destitute 3. without protection or defense 4. without conventional or usual covering; specif., 4a. out of its sheath [a naked sword] 4b. without grass, vegetation, etc. 4c. without furnishing, decoration, etc. [a naked wall] 5. without additions, ornaments, disguises, or embellishments; plain; stark [the naked truth] 6. without the aid of a microscope, telescope, etc. [the naked eye] 7. Bot. without leaves, corolla, ovary, perianth, etc. 8. Law lacking a necessary condition; invalid [a naked contract] 9. Zool. without hair, scales, feathers, shell, etc. --SYN. bare --nakedly adv. --nakedness n.

NUDE - adj. 1. completely unclothed or uncovered; naked; bare 2. Law without consideration or other legal essential: said esp. of contracts --n. 1. a nude person 2. a representation of a nude human figure in painting, sculpture, etc. 3. the condition of being nude; nakedness [in the nude] --SYN. bare --nudely adv. --nudeness n.

Those definitions out of the way, I was always of the impression that it was a matter of nude being more acceptable, as that is the term used for art forms without clothing, whereas naked was more a "common" term. But it appears in everything but art that they are interchangeable, as each appears in the definition of the other.

Answer 2

This poem addresses the issue. (Or should it be "undresses"!)

I always thought the distinction was subtle, but boiled down to "naked" being a normal state, such as when bathing, and "nude" being more a matter of "exhibitionism."

The Naked and the Nude
Robert Graves

For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.

Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze;
The Hippocratic eye will see
In nakedness, anatomy;
And naked shines the Goddess when
She mounts her lion among men.

The nude are bold, the nude are sly
To hold each treasonable eye.
While draping by a showman's trick
Their dishabille in rhetoric,
They grin a mock-religious grin
Of scorn at those of naked skin.

The naked, therefore, who compete
Against the nude may know defeat;
Yet when they both together tread
The briary pastures of the dead,
By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
How naked go the sometime nude!

Answer 3

Naked is when you are stripped of your clothing without your consent. To have your body bared to all by force or deceit is to be striped naked.
Nude is when you willingly shed your clothes in private of public. For example: a model will pose nude on a small stage for a group of artists or a single artist for a session of artwork. Whereas a man or a woman will shed their clothes in sight of their lover and spouse in the privacy of their own home. Or in the woods if they are feeling a little adventurous.
There's the difference between naked and nude.

Answer 4

In common usage, the terms are synonyms.

When applied to art, they take on different inflections. "Naked" implies vulnerability. "Nude" implies a figure without clothes that is not obviously in a vulnerable situation. The line between the two can blur significantly.

Answer 5

Since this question is in the "photography" section, I'll assume you mean it in the context of art. In this context, paintings and photographs that use the "unclothed" human form are known as "nude." It implies an "artful" aesthetic depiction of the human form in it's natural state. "Naked," as an "art" term, implies the opposite, and is often used by modern artists as an artistic statement rejecting what some see as the "artifice" of art before the modern movement.

Answer 6

Depends on where you are from. Down here in the south when you are nude, you have no clothes on. when you are naked (or nekkid as it is sometimes pronounced) you have no clothes on . . .and you're up to somethin'.

Answer 7

it's they same thing like being unclothed and being filmed in a nude in their home in private. thats what i would like to do someday is to have someone film me in a nude in my home in private because i love my body and if you would like to chat more you may add me to [e-mail]

Answer 8

"nude" is a fancy word that people use when they are talking about pornography and pornographic "art" to make it sound more sophisticated so that they don't have to deal with the fact that it is highly immoral.

Answer 9

Naked is X-rated; nude is art. :-)

Answer 10

The spelling.