plain

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Simple and ordinary, without decoration or anything added.

   He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.

2. 2
   adj

   Easy to see or understand; obvious.

   It was plain that something was wrong.

3. 3
   adj

   Honest and direct, without trying to soften the truth.

   She told me the plain truth about what had happened.

4. 4
   noun

   A large area of flat, open land.

   They emerged from the woods onto a vast open plain.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Plain and plane both come from Latin planus, meaning “flat.” In the early 17th century mathematicians introduced the spelling plane to distinguish geometrical uses from senses of plain such as “ordinary” and “simple.”

From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Old French plein, from Latin plēnus (“full, filled, complete”). Ultimately from Proto-Italic *plēnos, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”). Doublet of plene, plenary, and full.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary