Plain

/pleɪn/ · adjective

Meaning

(now rare, regional) Flat, level..

Definitions by Sense

1. (now rare, regional) Flat, level.
2. Simple, unaltered.
3. Obvious.
4. Open.
5. Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
6. (card games) Not a trump.
7. (colloquial) Simply.
8. (archaic) Plainly; distinctly.

Example Sentences

The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.

Up to that time the girl had never really done her hair, and she regarded boots merely as things to protect the feet. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was considered plain and that she diffused an atmosphere of intellectual frost.

It was just plain stupid.

I plain forgot.

One trouble, he explained, is that dope pushers flock to neighborhoods where two gangs are at war, knowing they will find buyers among members of the gangs who are so keyed up that they welcome any kind of relaxation or who are just plain afraid.

Tell me plain: do you love me or no?

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”

Synonyms for plain

Antonyms for plain

Related Words

Word Forms

• plainer
• plainest
• plaine
• plains
• plaining
• plained
• plein

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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