plain

«plain» in Mova's school dictionary: simple, with nothing added or no decoration, like a plain… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (plain, plainer, plainest); noun (a plain, plains); adverb (plain: plain wrong)

meaning for a pupil

1) Plain means simple, with nothing added or no decoration, like a plain T-shirt or plain yogurt. tree →

2) Plain means easy to see or understand; clear, as in «it was plain that he was tired». tree →

3) A plain is a large, flat area of land with few trees. tree →

4) Plain can describe someone who is not especially good-looking (not kind to say). tree →

5) Plain (adverb) means completely, as in «plain silly». tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography: plains are wide, flat lands, like the Great Plains of North America, good for farming and grazing. In art and writing: plain colours, plain English (simple, clear words). In maths, «plain» paper has no lines or squares. Everyday: «plain flour», «plain chocolate» (UK: dark chocolate), «plain clothes» police. Phrases: «plain and simple», «in plain sight», «plain sailing» (easy), «as plain as day».

examples

• I'd like a plain biscuit, please. tree →
• Draw your picture on plain paper. tree →
• It was plain that she was upset. tree →
• Buffalo once roamed the Great Plains. tree →
• The instructions were written in plain English. tree →
• He wore a plain white shirt. tree →
• The keys were in plain sight on the table. tree →
• After the first hill, it was plain sailing. tree →
• That's just plain silly. tree →

note

Homophone: «plane» (an aeroplane, a flat surface in maths, a woodworking tool, a tree) sounds the same. In maths, a flat surface is a «plane», not a «plain». Comparatives: «plainer, plainest».

In the corpora

• DNA showed the quagga was a kind of plains zebra, and a project has bred zebras that look like quaggas again.
• The deadliest mushroom in the world, the death cap, looks plain and tastes fine.
• The bare winter countryside seems to show him «the insides of things», and he likes it plain and strong.
• Just a pig—a plain pig!» (Here «pig» means a selfish, thoughtless person.)
• As sugar dissolves you can see wavy streams, because the sugary water bends light differently from plain water.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «plain» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.