The word "ignorant" has a denotative meaning along the lines of "to lack knowledge" or "to not know", but its connotative meaning, by my understanding, is negative. Are there any synonyms of this word that have a more neutral connotation?
The stack exchange question herehere suggests that "uninformed" might be suitable for this purpose, but there seems to be a split consensus on that word's connotation; some see that word as connotatively negative as well. Historically, I myself have used the phrase "to not know" as a safe alternative, since it isn't my wish to stigmatize others for lacking knowledge; however, this substitute is slightly verbose. Are there other possibilities?
