Plain vs Voluble - What's the difference?
plain | voluble | Related terms |
* 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
(of a person or a manner of speaking) Fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.
* , Love's Labour's Lost , act 3, scene 1:
* 1853 , , Villette , ch. 19:
* 1904 , , The Sea Wolf , ch. 26:
Expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
* 1886 , , The Minister's Charge , ch. 6:
* 1910 , , "The Reticence of Lady Anne" in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches :
* 1922 , , Ulysses , Episode 9:
Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
* 1935 , , Zulu Paraclete: A Sentimental Record , Peter Davies,
(botany) Twisting and turning like a vine.
Plain is a related term of voluble.
As adjectives the difference between plain and voluble
is that plain is while voluble is (of a person or a manner of speaking) fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.As an adverb plain
is (colloquial) simply.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)- 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 ----voluble
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!
- What fun shone in his eyes as he recalled some of her fine speeches, and repeated them, imitating her voluble delivery!
- But Wolf Larsen seemed voluble , prone to speech as I had never seen him before.
- [H]e heard the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble' remorse, and in ' voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy.
- As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.
- In the daylit corridor he talked with voluble pains of zeal.
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- Seen from the west, their sky-line gallops away north and south like a sea-serpent in voluble motion.