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Plain vs Completely - What's the difference?

plain | completely |

As adverbs the difference between plain and completely

is that plain is (colloquial) simply while completely is (manner) in a complete manner; fully; totally; utterly.

As an adjective plain

is .

As a noun plain

is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief.

As a verb plain

is to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

plain

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • * Bible, (w) xl. 4
    • The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .
  • Simple.
  • # Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
  • #* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=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.}}
  • # Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
  • # Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
  • #* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)
  • plain yet pious Christians
  • #* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)
  • the plain people
  • # (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
  • # (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
  • Obvious.
  • # Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.
  • #* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
  • In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
  • # Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
  • Open.
  • # Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • an honest mind, and plain
  • # Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
  • #* Felton
  • Our troops beat an army in plain fight.
  • Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
    • Synonyms
    * no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See also
    Antonyms
    * bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornate
    Derived terms
    * plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainness
    Related terms
    * plane * planar

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (colloquial) Simply
    • It was just plain stupid.
    I plain forgot.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .

    Alternative forms

    * plein

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
  • * 1815 , Sir , 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

    (en verb)
  • To lament, bewail.
    • to plain a loss
  • * 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.
  • * , 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 (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia plain) (en noun)
  • 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”
  • A battlefield.
    • (Arbuthnot)
  • * Shakespeare
    • Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .
  • (obsolete) A .
    • 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

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
  • * Wither
    • We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
  • (obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English degree adverbs ----

    completely

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (manner) In a complete manner; fully; totally; utterly.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), , Chapter 70,
    • It should not have been omitted that previous to completely stripping the body of the leviathan, he was beheaded.
  • * 1899 , (Kate Chopin), , Chapter XIX,
    • She completely abandoned her Tuesdays at home, and did not return the visits of those who had called upon her.
  • * 1969 , E.R. Zumwalt, Jr., ,
    • Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY immediately maneuvered his craft through several strafing runs which completely silenced the enemy.
  • (degree) To the fullest extent or degree; totally.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.}}
  • * 1968 June 8, ,
    • Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control.
  • * 1975 , (Helen Schucman), '', Lesson 75: ''The light has come ,
    • Keep a completely open mind, washed of all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made.

    Synonyms

    * See also