plain

Meaning

Adj

1. Flat, level.
2. Simple, unaltered.
3. Simple, unaltered.
4. Simple, unaltered.
5. Simple, unaltered.
6. Simple, unaltered.
7. Obvious.
8. Obvious.
9. Open.
10. Open.
11. Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
12. Not a trump.

Adv

1. (colloquial) Simply.
2. Plainly; distinctly.

Noun

1. An expanse of land with relatively low relief and few trees, especially a grassy expanse.
2. A broad, flat expanse in general, as of water.
3. Synonym of field in reference to a battlefield.
4. (obsolete) Alternative spelling of plane: a flat geometric field.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.
2. (obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.

Noun

A lamentation.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To complain.
2. To lament, bewail.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pleɪn/

Etymology

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”).