Plain vs Flat - What's the difference?
plain | flat |
* Bible, (w) xl. 4
Simple.
# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= # Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)
#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)
# (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
# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
Open.
# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
#* Felton
Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
(colloquial) Simply
(rare, poetic) A lamentation.
* 1815 , Sir ,
To lament, bewail.
* Bishop Joseph Hall
* ,
An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
* Milton
* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.
A battlefield.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) A .
(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
* Wither
(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
* Shakespeare
Having no variations in height.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=17 (of a tire or other inflated object) Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
(music, note) Lowered by one semitone.
(music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.
(music, voice) Without variations in pitch.
Of a carbonated drink, with all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
Uninteresting.
* Coleridge
* Shakespeare
(wine) Lacking acidity without being sweet.
Absolute.
(slang) Describing certain features, usually the breasts and/or buttocks, that are extremely small or not visible at all.
(of a battery) Unable to emit power; dead.
(juggling, of a throw) Without spin; spinless.
Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull.
(phonetics, dated, of a consonant) sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant
(obsolete) Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright.
* Shakespeare
* Marston
So as to be flat.
Bluntly.
Not exceeding.
Completely.
Directly; flatly.
* Herbert
(finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.
An area of level ground.
* Francis Bacon
* , chapter=3
, title= (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol sign placed after the letter representing the note (e.g.'', B?) or in front of the note symbol (''e.g. ??).
(informal, automotive) A flat tyre/tire.
* 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited,
(in the plural) A type of ladies' shoes with very low heels.
(painting) A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolor/watercolour painting.
The part of something:
# (swordfighting) The side of a blade, as opposed to the sharp edge.
# The palm of the hand, with the adjacent part of the fingers.
A wide, shallow container.
(geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
(US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
(mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
(obsolete) A dull fellow; a simpleton.
* Holmes
(technical theatre) A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan or muslin that can be raised as a platform.
(poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without .
To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
(intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.
(music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
(dated) To make flat; to flatten; to level.
(dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
* Barrow
In obsolete terms the difference between plain and flat
is that plain is a plane while flat is a dull fellow; a simpleton.As adjectives the difference between plain and flat
is that plain is flat, level while flat is having no variations in height.As adverbs the difference between plain and flat
is that plain is simply while flat is so as to be flat.As nouns the difference between plain and flat
is that plain is a lamentation while flat is an area of level ground.As verbs the difference between plain and flat
is that plain is to lament, bewail while flat is to make a flat call; to call without raising.plain
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .
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.}}
- plain yet pious Christians
- the plain people
- 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.
- an honest mind, and plain
- Our troops beat an army in plain fight.
Synonyms
* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See alsoAntonyms
* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornateDerived 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 * plainnessAdverb
(-)- 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
* pleinNoun
(en noun)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 plain a loss
- 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.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia plain) (en noun)- Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .
- 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”
- (Arbuthnot)
- Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .
Synonyms
* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppeAntonyms
* cliff * gorge * mountain * valeDerived 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 plainSee also
* grassland * meadowVerb
(en verb)- We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
- What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.
Statistics
*Anagrams
* English degree adverbs ----flat
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) flat, from (etyl)Flat] in (Online Etymology Dictionary)flatr (Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from (etyl) [http://ordnet.dk/ods/opslag?opslag=flad&submit=S%F8g Sanskrit, OHG and Greek cognates named.
Alternative forms
* , (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(flatter)citation, passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
- A large part of the work is, to me, very flat .
- How weary, stale, flat , and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world.
- The market is flat .
- flat burglary as ever was committed
- A great tobacco taker too, — that's flat .
Synonyms
* (having no variations in altitude) even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform * (deflated) deflated, punctured * (without variations in pitch) monotone * (uninteresting) boring, dull, uninteresting * flabbyAntonyms
* (having no variations in altitude) bumpy, cratered, hilly (of terrain), rough (of a surface), wrinkled (of a surface) * sharp * sharpDerived terms
* flat as a pancake * flatcar * flat-footed * flatly * flatness * flat out * flat rate * flatten * that's flatAdverb
(en adverb)- Spread the tablecloth flat over the table.
- I asked him if he wanted to marry me and he turned me down flat .
- He can run a mile in four minutes flat .
- I am flat broke this month.
- Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.
Synonyms
* (so as to be flat) * (bluntly) bluntly, curtly * (not exceeding) tops * (completely) absolutely, completely, utterlyNoun
(en noun)- Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat .
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats . I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
- The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent.
- (Raymond)
- Or if you cannnot make a speech, / Because you are a flat .
Antonyms
* (note) sharp * (shoes) high heelsDerived terms
* mudflatVerb
- Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted .