free from ambiguity or evasion; candid; outspoken: the plain truth of the matter.
6.
without special pretensions, superiority, elegance, etc.; ordinary: plain people.
7.
not beautiful; physically unattractive or undistinguished: a plain face.
8.
without intricacies or difficulties.
9.
ordinary, simple, or unostentatious: Although she was a duchess, her manners were attractively plain.
10.
with little or no embellishment, decoration, or enhancing elaboration: a plain blue suit.
11.
without a pattern, figure, or device: a plain fabric.
12.
not rich, highly seasoned, or elaborately prepared, as food: a plain diet.
13.
flat or level: plain country.
14.
unobstructed, clear, or open, as ground, a space, etc.
15.
Cards. being other than a face card or a trump.
–adverb
16.
clearly and simply: He's just plain stupid.
–noun
17.
an area of land not significantly higher than adjacent areas and with relatively minor differences in elevation, commonly less than 500 ft. (150 m), within the area.
Free from obstructions; open; clear: in plain view.
Obvious to the mind; evident: make one's intention plain. See Synonyms at apparent.
Not elaborate or complicated; simple: plain food.
Straightforward; frank or candid: plain talk.
Not mixed with other substances; pure: plain water.
Common in rank or station; average; ordinary: a plain man.
Not pretentious; unaffected.
Marked by little or no ornamentation or decoration.
Not dyed, twilled, or patterned: a plain fabric.
Lacking beauty or distinction: a plain face.
Sheer; utter; unqualified: plain stupidity.
Archaic Having no visible elevation or depression; flat; level.
n.
An extensive, level, usually treeless area of land.
A broad level expanse, as a part of the sea floor or a lunar mare.
Something free of ornamentation or extraneous matter.
adv.
Informal
Clearly; simply: plain stubborn.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin plānus; see pelə-2 in Indo-European roots.]
plain'ly adv., plain'ness n.
Synonyms: These adjectives mean not ornate, ostentatious, or showy: a plain hairstyle; a modest cottage; a simple dark suit; an unostentatious office; an unpretentious country church.
c.1300, "flat, smooth," from O.Fr. plain, from L. planus "flat, even, level" (see plane (1)). Sense of "evident" is from, c.1300; meaning "simple, sincere, ordinary" is recorded from c.1374. In ref. to the dress and speech of Quakers, it is recorded from 1827; of Amish and Mennonites, from 1904. Of appearance, as a euphemism for "ill-favored, ugly" it dates from 1749. Plain Jane "unattractive woman" first attested 1912. Plain-spoken first attested 1678. Plain clothes "ordinary dress" (as opposed to military uniform) is from 1822; of police detectives, it is attested from 1842. Plain-song (1513) translates L. cantus planus.
"level country," 1297 (originally in ref. to Salisbury Plain), from O.Fr. plain, from L. planum "level ground, plain," properly neut. of adj. planus "flat, even, level" ((see plane (1)). L. planum was used for "level ground" but much more common was campus. Plains of the American Midwest first so called 1684.
clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment; "the effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who sees the parched fields"; "evident hostility"; "manifest disapproval"; "patent advantages"; "made his meaning plain"; "it is plain that he is no reactionary"; "in plain view" [syn: apparent]
2.
not elaborate or elaborated; simple; "plain food"; "stuck to the plain facts"; "a plain blue suit"; "a plain rectangular brick building" [ant: fancy]
3.
lacking patterns especially in color [ant: patterned]
4.
not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer wine"; "not an unmixed blessing"
5.
free from any effort to soften to disguise; "the plain and unvarnished truth"; "the unvarnished candor of old people and children"
6.
lacking embellishment or ornamentation; "a plain hair style"; "unembellished white walls"; "functional architecture featuring stark unornamented concrete"
7.
lacking in physical beauty or proportion; "a homely child"; "several of the buildings were downright homely"; "a plain girl with a freckled face" [syn: homely]
adverb
1.
unmistakably ('plain' is often used informally for 'plainly'); "the answer is obviously wrong"; "she was in bed and evidently in great pain"; "he was manifestly too important to leave off the guest list"; "it is all patently nonsense"; "she has apparently been living here for some time"; "I thought he owned the property, but apparently not"; "You are plainly wrong"; "he is plain stubborn" [syn: obviously]
noun
1.
extensive tract of level open land; "they emerged from the woods onto a vast open plain"; "he longed for the fields of his youth"
An extensive, relatively level area of land. Plains are present on all continents except Antarctica and are most often located in the interior regions. Because they can occur at almost any altitude or latitude, plains can be humid and forested, semiarid and grass-covered, or arid.
A broad, level expanse, such as an area of the sea floor or a lunar mare.
PLAIN Programming LAnguage for INteraction. Pascal-like, with extensions for database, string handling, exceptions and pattern matching. "Revised Report on the Programming Language PLAIN", A. Wasserman, SIGPLAN Notices 6(5):59-80 (May 1981).
Plain City, OH (village, FIPS 63030) Location: 40.10680 N, 83.26999 W Population (1990): 2278 (926 housing units) Area: 2.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 43064
Plain View, VA Zip code(s): 23156
Plain Dealing, LA (town, FIPS 60670) Location: 32.90678 N, 93.69892 W Population (1990): 1074 (494 housing units) Area: 4.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 71064
Plain City, UT (city, FIPS 60710) Location: 41.29888 N, 112.07513 W Population (1990): 2722 (754 housing units) Area: 8.2 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Plain, WI (village, FIPS 63125) Location: 43.27829 N, 90.04218 W Population (1990): 691 (293 housing units) Area: 1.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 53577
Pleasant Plain, OH (village, FIPS 63576) Location: 39.27972 N, 84.10932 W Population (1990): 138 (45 housing units) Area: 0.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 45162
Strawberry Plain, TN Zip code(s): 37871
Maple Plain, MN (city, FIPS 40256) Location: 45.00890 N, 93.66150 W Population (1990): 2005 (720 housing units) Area: 2.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 55359
Jamaica Plain, MA Zip code(s): 02130
Garden Plain, KS (city, FIPS 25375) Location: 37.66110 N, 97.68156 W Population (1990): 731 (251 housing units) Area: 1.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 67050
Fort Plain, NY (village, FIPS 26924) Location: 42.93168 N, 74.62830 W Population (1990): 2416 (1127 housing units) Area: 3.5 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 13339
Fair Plain, MI (CDP, FIPS 27160) Location: 42.08175 N, 86.45353 W Population (1990): 8051 (3394 housing units) Area: 10.9 sq km (land), 0.6 sq km (water)
Pleasant Plain, IA (city, FIPS 63615) Location: 41.14737 N, 91.85970 W Population (1990): 128 (47 housing units) Area: 2.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Elk Plain, WA (CDP, FIPS 21205) Location: 47.05335 N, 122.37804 W Population (1990): 12197 (4255 housing units) Area: 29.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Ex*plain"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Explained; p. pr. & vb. n. Explaining.] [L. explandare to flatten, spread out, explain; ex out+plandare to make level or plain, planus plain: cf. OF. esplaner, explaner. See Plain,a., and cf. Esplanade.]1. To flatten; to spread out; to unfold; to expand. [Obs.] The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf. --Evelyn. 2. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to expound; to unfold and illustrate the meaning of; as, to explain a chapter of the Bible. Commentators to explain the difficult passages to you. --Gay. To explain away, to get rid of by explanation. "Those explain the meaning quite away." --Pope. Syn: To expound; interpret; elucidate; clear up.
Floor\, n. [AS. fl?r; akin to D. vloer, G. flur field, floor, entrance hall, Icel. fl?r floor of a cow stall, cf. Ir. & Gael. lar floor, ground, earth, W. llawr, perh. akin to L. planus level. Cf. Plain smooth.]1. The bottom or lower part of any room; the part upon which we stand and upon which the movables in the room are supported. 2. The structure formed of beams, girders, etc., with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into stories. Floor in sense 1 is, then, the upper surface of floor in sense 2. 3. The surface, or the platform, of a structure on which we walk or travel; as, the floor of a bridge. 4. A story of a building. See Story. 5. (Legislative Assemblies) (a) The part of the house assigned to the members. (b) The right to speak. [U.S.] Note: Instead of he has the floor, the English say, he is in possession of the house. 6. (Naut.) That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal. 7. (Mining) (a) The rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit. (b) A horizontal, flat ore body. --Raymond. Floor cloth, a heavy fabric, painted, varnished, or saturated, with waterproof material, for covering floors; oilcloth. Floor cramp, an implement for tightening the seams of floor boards before nailing them in position. Floor light, a frame with glass panes in a floor. Floor plan. (a) (Shipbuilding) A longitudinal section, showing a ship as divided at the water line. (b) (Arch.) A horizontal section, showing the thickness of the walls and partitions, arrangement of passages, apartments, and openings at the level of any floor of a house.
Man"i*fest\, a. [F. manifeste, L. manifestus, lit., struck by the hand, hence, palpable; manus hand + fendere (in comp.) to strike. See Manual, and Defend.]1. Evident to the senses, esp. to the sight; apparent; distinctly perceived; hence, obvious to the understanding; apparent to the mind; easily apprehensible; plain; not obscure or hidden. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. -- Heb. iv. 13. That which may be known of God is manifest in them. --Rom. i. 19. Thus manifest to sight the god appeared. --Dryden. 2. Detected; convicted; -- with of. [R.] Calistho there stood manifest of shame. --Dryden. Syn: Open; clear; apparent; evident; visible; conspicuous; plain; obvious. Usage: Manifest, Clear, Plain, Obvious, Evident. What is clear can be seen readily; what is obvious lies directly in our way, and necessarily arrests our attention; what isevident is seen so clearly as to remove doubt; what is manifest is very distinctly evident. So clear, so shining, and so evident, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. --Shak. Entertained with solitude, Where obvious duty er?while appeared unsought. --Milton. I saw, I saw him manifest in view, His voice, his figure, and his gesture knew. --Dryden.
Pi*an"o\, Pianoforte \Pi*an"o*for`te\, n. [It. piano soft (fr. L. planus even, smooth; see Plain, a.) + It. forte strong, fr. L. fortis (see Fort).] (Mus.) A well-known musical instrument somewhat resembling the harpsichord, and consisting of a series of wires of graduated length, thickness, and tension, struck by hammers moved by keys. Dumb piano. See Digitorium. Grand piano. See under Grand. Square piano, one with a horizontal frame and an oblong case. Upright piano, one with an upright frame and vertical wires.
Plain\, v. i. [OE. playne, pleyne, fr. F. plaindre. See Plaint.] To lament; to bewail; to complain. [Archaic & Poetic] --Milton. We with piteous heart unto you pleyne. --Chaucer.
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Audio Help [pleyn] Pronunciation Key adjective, -er, -est, adverb, noun 
ssein to strike
