Plain

Adjective



 * 1)  Flat, level.
 * 2) Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
 * He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.
 * 1) Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, obvious, clear, unmistakable.
 * 2) * 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional
 * In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, this Abbot, it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
 * 1) Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
 * His answer was just plain nonsense.
 * 1) Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
 * Let me be plain with you: I don't like her.
 * 1) Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
 * They're just plain people like you or me.
 * 1) Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
 * Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.
 * 1)  Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
 * Would you like a poppy bagel or a plain bagel?
 * 1)  Containing no non-printing characters; ASCII code values 32 through 126.

Synonyms

 * no-frills
 * normal
 * ordinary
 * simple
 * unadorned
 * unseasoned
 * See also Thesaurus:bare-bones

Antonyms

 * bells and whistles
 * decorative
 * exotic
 * fancy
 * ornate

Derived terms

 * plain and simple
 * plain as a pikestaff
 * plain as the nose on one's face
 * plain chocolate
 * plain clothes
 * plain-dealing
 * plain film
 * plain flour
 * plain-hearted
 * plain Jane
 * plain-laid


 * plain line
 * plain paper
 * plain sailing
 * plain song/plainsong
 * plain-spoken
 * plain text
 * plain-vanilla
 * plain weave
 * plain-winged
 * plainly
 * plainness

Related terms

 * plane
 * planar

Adverb

 * 1)  Simply
 * It was just plain stupid.
 * I plain forgot.

Verb

 * 1)  To lament, bewail.
 * 2) * Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, XXV, lines 5-9
 * Then came I crying, and to-day,
 * With heavier cause to plain,
 * Depart I into death away,
 * Not to be born again.

Noun



 * 1) An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
 * 2) * 1961, J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato. In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.
 * For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains, in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”
 * 1)  A plane.

Synonyms

 * flatlands
 * high plain
 * plateau
 * prairie
 * steppe

Antonyms

 * cliff
 * gorge
 * mountain
 * vale

Derived terms

 * abyssal plain
 * alluvial plain
 * flood plain/floodplain
 * gibber plain
 * Great Plains
 * peneplain
 * Plains
 * plain wanderer
 * salt plain
 * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain

Related terms

 * esplanade
 * explain

Adjectives for Plain
alluvial; dewy; pool-studded; olive-plumed; alluring; torrid; fluctuating; capacious; friendless; brown; sunburnt; smiling; vast; barren; central; abounding; twilight; pensive; mournful; sterile; murderous; ravaged; sunny; harvest-shining; upland; high; delightful; skirting; rugged; rocky; celestial; sandy; trackless; melancholy; comforting; circumfluous; featureless; wan; infernal; illimitable ; stubborn; ravished; wide-stretching; idol-burdened; rainy; billowy; fertile; cultivated; extensive; terraced; pastoral; variegated; desolate; prostrate; half-dreary; semibarren; extensive; ethereal; tilted; elevated; semibarbaric; sun-dried; dusky; grassy; placid; cactus; happy; watered; ivory; verdurous; unsheltered; empty; tawny; shimmering; ringing; joyous; delicious; immitigable; flower-paved; smiling; sultry; horrible; boundless;  grassless;  treeless; long; deep; sandy; wide; deluged; native; chequered; somber; iridescent; sun-blistered; moonlit; pensive; windswept; dazzling; fruitful; burning; ringing (pi); shadowed; immortal; horizon-bounded; stubble; dust-beclouded; undulating; extensive; cattle; classic; redolent; broad; dreary; narrow; soaring; temperate.

Verbs for Plain
cultivate—; dwell in—; follow—; frequent —; inhabit—; level into—; overlook—; peo¬ple—; roam—; scan—; till—; travel—; wander over—; —extends; —rolls; —stretches; —unfolds; —unrolls.

Adverbs for Plain
(unadorned) emphatically; undeniably; pleasantly; hopelessly; significantly; severely; inartistically; monotonously; invariably; chastely; rigorously; unaffectedly; gracelessly; awkwardly; unfortunately; frightfully; hideously; curiously; singularly; horribly; forbiddingly. (clear) delightfully; distinctly; graphically; singularly; curiously; brilliantly; obviously.

Thesaurus
Attic, Bohemian, Ciceronian, Lebensraum, Mickey Mouse, Spartan, abrupt, absolute, absolutely, affable, agricultural region, air space, all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-out, all-pervading, apparent, arable land, articulate, artless, ascetic, audible, austere, back country, bald, bare, baseborn, basic, beautiless, below the salt, billiard table, black belt, blemished, blotted, bluff, blunt, born, born yesterday, bowling green, broad, broad-based, brusque, cacophonic, cacophonous, campestral, campestrian, campo, candid, casual, champaign, chaste, cheerful, childlike, citrus belt, classic, classical, clean, clean-cut, clear, clear as crystal, clear as day, clear space, clear-cut, clearance, clearing, cockney, coherent, colorless, comfortable, common, commonplace, comprehensive, confiding, congenital, connected, consistent, conspicuous, consummate, contrastive, cordial, corn belt, cotton belt, countryside, cozy, crisp, crystal-clear, crystalline, cushy, dead flat, dead level, deep-dyed, defaced, defined, definite, degage, desert, direct, discernible, discreet, disfigured, distant prospect, distinct, distinctive, down, downright, drab, dry, dull, dust bowl, dyed-in-the-wool, dysphemistic, dysphemized, earth, easy, easy as pie, easygoing, effortless, egregious, elegant, elementary, empty view, esplanade, essential, even, everyday, evident, exhaustive, explicit, express, facile, familiar, farm belt, farm country, farmland, featureless, finished, flat, flatland, flattened, floor, flush, folksy, forthright, frank, frankhearted, free, free and easy, free-speaking, free-spoken, free-tongued, friendly, fruit belt, fundamental, garden, garden-variety, genuine, glade, glaring, glib, graceful, gracile, gracious, graphic, grass roots, grassland, grazing region, ground, guileless, haymish, hearable, heart-to-heart, heath, hi-fi, high-fidelity, highlands, homaloid, homaloidal, homelike, homely, homespun, homey, homish, homogeneous, honest, horizontal, horizontal axis, horizontal fault, horizontal line, horizontal parallax, horizontal plane, horizontal projection, household, humble, humble-looking, humble-visaged, humblest, humdrum, ill-favored, in focus, indisputable, indivisible, indubitable, inelegant, informal, ingenu, ingenuous, inglorious, innocent, innocuous, insipid, intelligible, intensive, intimate, irreducible, irregular, irretrievably, irrevocably, lean, least, ledge, legible, level, level line, level plane, light, limpid, living space, llano, loose, loud and clear, low, lowborn, lowbred, lowest, lowlands, lowliest, lowly, lucid, luminous, manifest, marred, matter-of-fact, mead, meadows and pastures, mean, mean sea level, mere, modest, monolithic, moor, moorland, moors, mundane, muted, naive, natural, neat, nonclerical, nondescript, nothing to it, noticeable, observable, obvious, of a piece, offhand, offhanded, omnibus, omnipresent, open, open country, open space, open-and-shut, openhearted, ordinary, out-and-out, outback, outright, outspoken, painless, palpable, pampas, parterre, pasture, patent, peaceful, pedestrian, pellucid, perceivable, perceptible, perfect, perfectly, perspicuous, pervasive, plain as day, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, plains, plane, plateau, platform, plebeian, plumb, poetryless, polished, poor, prairie, prairies, primal, primary, prominent, pronounced, prosaic, prose, prosing, prosy, province, provinces, pure, pure and simple, quite, radical, refined, regular, relaxed, restrained, right, rolled, round, rude, rural district, rustic, rustic region, savanna, sea level, sea of grass, seeable, self-evident, self-explaining, self-explanatory, severe, shabby-genteel, sheer, short, short on looks, simon-pure, simple, simple as ABC, simple-speaking, simplehearted, simpleminded, sincere, single, single-hearted, single-minded, small, smooth, smoothed out, smoothened, snug, sober, sociable, soft, spare, spartan, spoiled, squashed, squashed flat, staring, stark, steppe, steppes, straight, straight-out, straightforward, sweeping, table, tabloid, tabular, tangible, tasteful, teachable, terrace, terrain, territory, terse, the country, the soil, the sticks, third-estate, thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, tiresome, to be seen, tobacco belt, total, translucent, transparent, transpicuous, trim, trodden, trodden flat, trustful, trusting, tundra, ubiquitous, uglified, ugly, ugly as hell, ugly as sin, unadorned, unadulterated, unaesthetic, unaffected, unalluring, unambiguous, unassuming, unattractive, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, unburdensome, unceremonious, unchecked, uncluttered, uncomely, uncomplicated, unconcealed, unconditional, unconfused, unconstrained, unconventional, undecorated, understandable, undifferenced, undifferentiated, undiluted, undisguised, undissembled, undissembling, undistinguished, unelaborate, unembellished, unenhanced, unequivocal, unfeigned, ungarnished, ungenteel, unguarded, unhandsome, unidealistic, uniform, unimaginative, unimpassioned, unimportant, universal, univocal, unlabored, unlovely, unluxurious, unmistakable, unmitigated, unmixed, unofficial, unornamented, unostentatious, unpleasing, unpoetic, unpoetical, unpretending, unpretentious, unpretty, unqualified, unrelievedly, unremarkable, unreserved, unrestrained, unrestricted, unromantic, unsightly, unsophisticated, unstudied, unsuspicious, unvarnished, unwary, uplands, utter, vapid, veld, veldt, veritable, visible, vivid, vulgar, water level, well-defined, well-marked, well-pronounced, well-resolved, wheat belt, wholesale, wide-open spaces, wilderness, wold, woodland, woods and fields, workaday, workday, yokeldom

Etymology 1
From pleyn:, playn:,  plain:, plein:, from  planus:.

Etymology 2
From plainer:, pleiner:, variant of  and  pleindre:, plaindre:, from  plangere:.

Etymology 3
From plain:, from  planum:, neuter substantive from planus:.

Adjective

 * Arabic:
 * Armenian:
 * Basque:, xume,
 * Chinese: 平的 (píng de)
 * Croatian: ,
 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:, ,
 * French:
 * German:
 * Hungarian:


 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 質素な (しっそな, shissona)
 * Korean: 소박한 (sobakhan)
 * Kurdish:
 * Sorani:
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:
 * Scottish Gaelic: sìmplidh
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:


 * Finnish:


 * French:


 * Japanese: 平 (hira)

Noun

 * Armenian: ,
 * Aymara:
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese: 邍
 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch:
 * Esperanto: ebeno, ebenaĵo
 * Finnish:
 * French:


 * German:
 * Hungarian: alföld, síkság, róna
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 平地 (heichi)
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian: ,
 * Russian:
 * Spanish: llanura
 * Turkish:

Anagrams

 * lapin
 * Lipan
 * Lipan

Adjective

 * 1)  plane

Etymology
From planus:

Anagrams

 * alpin, lapin

Adjective

 * 1) full (not empty)
 * circa 1170,, Érec et Énide:
 * De tant come ele l'ot veü,
 * Que plains estoit de felenie.

Etymology
From plenus:

Descendants

 * French:

Adjective

 * 1) full

Etymology
From plenus:.