Simple

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɪmpÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -ɪmpÉ™l
• Hyphenation: sim + ple

Origin

From Middle English simple, from Old French and French simple, from Latin simplex ("simple, literally 'onefold', as opposed to duplex, twofold, double"), from sim- ("the same") + plicare ("to fold"): see same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc.

Full definition of simple

Adjective

1. Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
• 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, “… We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps ? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic ?...”
• 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
2. Without ornamentation; plain.
3. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
• John Marston (ca.1576-1634)Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
• Lord Byron (1788-1824)Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)To be simple is to be great.
4. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
5. (now rare) Trivial; insignificant.
• 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
6. (now colloquial) Feeble-minded; foolish.
7. (technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
1. (chemistry) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
2. (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
3. (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
4. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
   a simple ascidian
5. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
8. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)A medicine...whose simple touch
  Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

Synonyms

• (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold
• (having few parts or features) plain

Antonyms

• (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated
• (uncomplicated) subtle

Derived terms

Noun

1. (medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.37:I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistning and some drying.
• Sir W. TempleWhat virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
2. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
3. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
• Shakespearecompounded of many simples
4. (weaving) A drawloom.
5. (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
6. (Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.

Derived terms

• simpler
• simplist
• simplify

Anagrams

• impels