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Plain vs Particular - What's the difference?

plain | particular | Related terms |

Plain is a related term of particular.


In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between plain and particular

is that plain is (obsolete) a while particular is (obsolete) a person's own individual case.

As adjectives the difference between plain and particular

is that plain is while particular is (obsolete) pertaining only to a part of something; partial.

As nouns the difference between plain and particular

is that plain is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief while particular is a small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point.

As an adverb plain

is (colloquial) simply.

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

    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.

    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
    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 ----

    particular

    English

    Alternative forms

    * perticular (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Pertaining only to a part of something; partial.
  • Specific; discrete; concrete.
  • I couldn't find the particular model you asked for, but I hope this one will do.
    We knew it was named after John Smith, but nobody knows which particular John Smith.
  • * Shakespeare
  • [Make] each particular hair to stand an end, / Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
  • Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing.
  • I don't appreciate your particular brand of cynicism.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth
  • (obsolete) Known only to an individual person or group; confidential.
  • * 1623 , William Shakespeare, King Lear , V.1:
  • or these domesticke and particular broiles, Are not the question heere.
  • Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions).
  • My five favorite places are, in no particular order, New York, Chicago, Paris, San Francisco and London.
    I didn't have any particular interest in the book.
    He brought no particular news.
    She was the particular belle of the party.
  • (comparable) Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; precise; fastidious.
  • He is very particular about his food and if it isn't cooked to perfection he will send it back.
  • Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise.
  • a full and particular account of an accident
  • (legal) Containing a part only; limited.
  • a particular estate, or one precedent to an estate in remainder
  • (legal) Holding a particular estate.
  • a particular tenant
    (Blackstone)
  • (logic) Forming a part of a genus; relatively limited in extension; affirmed or denied of a part of a subject.
  • a particular proposition, opposed to "universal", e.g. (particular affirmative) "Some men are wise"; (particular negative) "Some men are not wise".

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * general

    Derived terms

    * antiparticularism * antiparticularist * in particular * particular average * particular Church * particular integral * particularism * particularize * particularly * particularity

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point.
  • (obsolete) A person's own individual case.
  • *, II.16:
  • *:Since philosophy could never find any way for tranquillity that might be generally good, let every man in his particular seeke for it.
  • * Whole Duty of Man
  • temporal blessings, whether such as concern the publicor such as concern our particular
  • *
  • Statistics

    * ----