plain.
Flat, level.
Meaning & usage
Flat, level.
Simple, unaltered. Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
He was dressed simply in plain black clothes.
a plain tune
Simple, unaltered. Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
a plain pink polycotton skirt
Simple, unaltered. Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
They're just plain people like you or me.
Simple, unaltered. Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
Would you like a poppy bagel or a plain bagel?
Simple, unaltered. Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
Obvious. Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.
Obvious. Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
His answer was just plain nonsense.
Open. Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
Let me be plain with you: I don't like her.
Open. Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
Throughout high school she worried that she had a rather plain face.
Not a trump.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin plānus (“flat, even, level, plain”). Doublet of llano, piano, plane, and plan.
Simply.
It was just plain stupid.
I plain forgot.
Plainly; distinctly.
Tell me plain: do you love me or no?
Where this word comes from
From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin plānus (“flat, even, level, plain”). Doublet of llano, piano, plane, and plan.
An expanse of land with relatively low relief and few trees, especially a grassy expanse.
A broad, flat expanse in general, as of water.
Synonym of field in reference to a battlefield.
Alternative spelling of plane: a flat geometric field.
Where this word comes from
From Old French plain, from Latin plānum (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from plānus (“level, even, flat”). Doublet of llano, piano, and plane.
To level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.
To make plain or manifest; to explain.
Where this word comes from
From Old French plain, from Latin plānum (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from plānus (“level, even, flat”). Doublet of llano, piano, and plane.
A lamentation.
Where this word comes from
From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere.
To complain.
To lament, bewail.
to plain a loss
Where this word comes from
From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere.
Full, complete in number or extent.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.