Plain
Pronunciation
- enPR: plÄn, IPA: /pleɪ̯n/
- Rhymes: -eɪn
- Homophones: plane
Origin 1
From Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, from Latin plÄnus ("flat, even, level, plain").
Adjective
File:Bagel.jpg|thumb|a plainplain
- (now rare, regional) Flat, level. from 14th c.
- Bible, Isaiah xl. 4The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
- Simple.
- Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished. from 14th c.He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.a plain tune
- 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
- Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.a plain pink polycotton skirt
- Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary. from 16th c.They're just plain people like you or me.
- Henry Hammond (1605-1660)plain yet pious Christians
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)the plain people
- (of food) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras. from 17th c.Would you like a poppy bagel or a plain bagel?
- (computing) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text). from 20th c.
- Obvious.
- Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable. from 14th c.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — DevotionalIn fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
- Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier). from 14th c.His answer was just plain nonsense.
- Open.
- Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt. from 14th c.Let me be plain with you: I don't like her.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)an honest mind, and plain
- Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
- FeltonOur troops beat an army in plain fight.
- Not unusually beautiful; unattractive. from 17th c.Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere, present active infinitive of plangÅ.
Alternative forms
Noun
plain
(plural plains)- (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
- 1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IXThe warrior-threat, the infant's plain,The mother's screams, were heard in vain;
Verb
- (ambitransitive, now rare, poetic) To lament, bewail.to plain a loss
- , More Poems, XXV, lines 5-9Then came I crying, and to-day,With heavier cause to plain,Depart I into death away,Not to be born again.
Origin 3
From Old French plain, from Latin plÄnum ("level ground, a plain"), neuter substantive from plÄnus ("level, even, flat").
Noun
plain
(plural plains)- An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
- MiltonHim the Ammonite
Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain. - 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 wholeâ€
- A battlefield.
- ShakespeareLead forth my soldiers to the plain.
- (obsolete) A plane.