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Purely vs Plainly - What's the difference?

purely | plainly |

As adverbs the difference between purely and plainly

is that purely is wholly; really, completely while plainly is in a plain manner; simply; basically.

purely

English

Adverb

(en adverb)
  • * 1962 , , Flush Times :
  • I am fascinated by the entire scene, I purely am.
  • Solely; exclusively; merely, simply.
  • * 2005 , Owen Bowcott, The Guardian , 8 Apr 2005:
  • The IRA should "lead by example" and "unilaterally" abandon paramilitary violence and adopt a purely political strategy, a leading Sinn Féin MP urged yesterday.
  • * 2007 , ‘(Helen Brooks)’, His Christmas Bride :
  • *:"But this meal tonight is not a date, not in the traditional sense. It's purely platonic, I assure you."
  • Chastely, innocently; in a sinless manner, without fault.
  • * 1623 , (William Shakespeare), Troilus and Cressida , First Folio, IV.7:
  • faith and troth, / Strain'd purely from all hollow bias drawing: / Bids thee with most diuine integritie, / From heart of very heart, great Hector welcome.
  • * 1823 , (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Table Talk :
  • By some means or other the water flows purely , and separated from the filth, in a deeper and narrower course on one side of the rock, and the refuse of the dirt and troubled water goes off on the other in a broader current [...].
    English manner adverbs English degree adverbs English focus adverbs

    plainly

    English

    Adverb

    (en-adv)
  • In a plain manner; simply; basically.
  • Obviously; clearly.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}