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Single vs Plain - What's the difference?

single | plain | Related terms |

Single is a related term of plain.


As nouns the difference between single and plain

is that single is single (45rpm vinyl record) while plain is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief.

As an adjective plain is

.

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.

single

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Fenella Saunders
  • , title= Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=The single -imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.}}
  • Not divided in parts.
  • Designed for the use of only one.
  • Performed by one person, or one on each side.
  • a single combat
  • * Milton
  • These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
  • Not married, and also not dating.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
  • * Dryden
  • Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.
  • (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
  • (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XI:
  • Therefore, when thyne eye is single : then is all thy boddy full off light. Butt if thyne eye be evyll: then shall all thy body be full of darknes?
  • * Shakespeare
  • I speak it with a single heart.
  • Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
  • * I. Watts
  • Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
  • (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

    Synonyms

    * (not accompanied by anything else) lone, sole * (not divided in parts) unbroken, undivided, uniform * (not married) unmarried

    Antonyms

    * (single) divorced, married, widowed

    Derived terms

    * single-acting * single bed * single-blind/single blind * single bond * single-cell * single-celled * single-click * single combat * single cream * single crochet * single cross * single crystal * single currency * single data rate * single-decker * singledom * single-elimination * single entry * single-eyed * single file * single flower * single-fold * single-foot * single grave * single-handed * single-handedly * single-hearted * singlehood * single-horse * single-issue * single leaf * single-line * single knot * single malt * single market * single-minded * single money * single mother * singleness * single-o * single option * single parent * single-phase * single-phasing * singleplayer * single-ply roof * single pneumonia * single-point * single-point urban interchange * single point of failure * single precision * single prop * single quote * singler * single scull * single-sex * single shell * single shot * single-shot * single sourcing * single-space * single-spaced * single-spacing * single standard * single star system * singlestick * single stitch * single supplement * singlet * single tax * singleton * single track * single union agreement * single-valued * single-wide * single-word

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
  • A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually has at least one extra track.
  • The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
  • One who is not married.
  • He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
  • (cricket) A score of one run.
  • (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
  • (dominoes) A tile that has different values (i.e., number of pips) in each end.
  • A bill valued at $1.
  • I don't have any singles , so you'll have to make change.
  • (UK) A one-way ticket.
  • (Canadian football) A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's end zone or has exited that end zone. Officially known in the rules as a rouge.
  • (tennis, chiefly, in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
  • One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
  • (UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
  • Antonyms

    * album * (one who is not married) married

    Derived terms

    * cassingle * lead single * singles bar * singles charts * split single * CD single

    See also

    * baseball * cricket

    Verb

    (singl)
  • To identify or select one member of a group from the others; generally used with out, either to single out' or to '''single''' (something) ' out .
  • Eddie singled out his favorite marble from the bag.
    Yvonne always wondered why Ernest had singled her out of the group of giggling girls she hung around with.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
  • (baseball) To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
  • Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
  • (agriculture) To thin out.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
  • (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
  • * W. S. Clark
  • Many very fleet horses, when overdriven, adopt a disagreeable gait, which seems to be a cross between a pace and a trot, in which the two legs of one side are raised almost but not quite, simultaneously. Such horses are said to single , or to be single-footed.
  • To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
  • * Hooker
  • an agent singling itself from consorts
  • To take alone, or one by one.
  • * Hooker
  • men commendable when they are singled

    Derived terms

    * single out

    See also

    (coefficient)

    References

    * *

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    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 ----