English

Adjective

a plain bagel

plain ‎(comparative plainer, superlative plainest)

1. (now rare, regional) Flat, level. [from 14th c.]
   • Bible, Isaiah xl. 4

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

2. Simple.
   1. Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished. [from 14th c.]

      He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.‎

      a plain tune‎

      • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

        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.

   2. Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

      a plain pink polycotton skirt‎

   3. 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

   4. (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?‎

   5. (computing) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text). [from 20th c.]
3. Obvious.
   1. Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable. [from 14th c.]
      • 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.

   2. Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier). [from 14th c.]

      His answer was just plain nonsense.‎

4. Open.
   1. 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

   2. Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
      • Felton

        Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

5. Not unusually beautiful; unattractive. [from 17th c.]

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

Synonyms

• no-frills
• normal
• ordinary
• simple
• unadorned
• unseasoned
• See also Wikisaurus:bare-bones

Antonyms

• bells and whistles
• decorative
• exotic
• fancy
• ornate

Derived terms

Related terms

• plane
• planar

Translations

Adverb

plain ‎(not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Simply

   It was just plain stupid.

   I plain forgot.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere, present active infinitive of plangō.

Alternative forms

• plein

Noun

plain ‎(plural plains)

1. (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
   • 1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IX

     The warrior-threat, the infant's plain,

     The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

plain ‎(third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (reflexive, obsolete) To complain. [13th-19th c.]
   • c. 1390, William Landland, Piers Plowman, Prologue:

     Persones and parisch prestes · pleyned hem to þe bischop / Þat here parisshes were pore · sith þe pestilence tyme […].

2. (transitive, intransitive, now rare, poetic) To lament, bewail. [from 14th c.]

   to plain a loss

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir J. Harrington to this entry?)

   • Bishop Joseph Hall

     Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain'd of his uneasy nest.

   • 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.

Related terms

• plaint
• complain

Etymology 3

From Old French plain, from Latin plānum ‎(“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from plānus ‎(“level, even, flat”).

Noun

a plain

plain ‎(plural plains)

1. An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
   • Milton

     Him 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 whole”

2. A battlefield.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Arbuthnot to this entry?)

   • Shakespeare

     Lead forth my soldiers to the plain.

3. (obsolete) 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

See also

• grassland
• meadow

Translations

Verb

plain ‎(third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
   • Wither

     We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
   • Shakespeare

     What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

Statistics

Anagrams

• lapin, Lipan

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin plēnus. Compare Italian pieno, Romansch plain, Romanian plin, French plein.

Adjective

plain ‎(feminine plaina)

1. full

French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin plānus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plɛ̃/
• Homophones: plains, plein, pleins

Adjective

plain m ‎(feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. (obsolete) plane

Anagrams

• alpin, lapin

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin plēnus.

Adjective

plain m ‎(feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. full (not empty)

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin plēnus.

Adjective

plain m ‎(feminine plaine)

1. full (not empty)
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     De tant come ele l'ot veü,

     Que plains estoit de felenie.

     As she had seen

     He was full of evil

Antonyms

• (full): vuit

Descendants

• French: plein

Etymology 2

From Latin plānum ‎(“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from plānus ‎(“level, even, flat”).

Noun

plain m ‎(oblique plural plainz, nominative singular plainz, nominative plural plain)

1. plain (flat area)

Synonyms

• plaine

Descendants

• English: plain

Etymology 3

From Latin plānus ‎(“level, even, flat”).

Adjective

plain m ‎(oblique and nominative feminine singular plaine)

1. flat (not even or mountainous)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Sursilvan) plein
• (Sutsilvan, Surmiran) plagn

Etymology

From Latin plēnus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine singular plaina, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plainas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) full