simple

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English

Etymology

From Middle English symple, simple, from Old French and French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from sim- (“the same”) + plicare (“to fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɪmpəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪmpəl
  • Hyphenation: sim‧ple

Adjective

simple (comparative simpler or more simple, superlative simplest or most simple)

  1. Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
    • Template:RQ:EHough PrqsPrc
      “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”
    • 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press →ISBN, page 167,
      There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
  2. Without ornamentation; plain.
  3. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
    • The template Template:rfdatek does not use the parameter(s): 
      3=John Marston
      Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.      (Can we date this quote by John Marston (poet) and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
    • (Can we date this quote by Lord Byron and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
    • (Can we date this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      To be simple is to be great.
  4. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
    Antonym: gentle
  5. (now rare) Trivial; insignificant.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
      ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
  6. (now colloquial) Feeble-minded; foolish.
  7. (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
    1. (chemistry) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
    2. (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
    3. (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
    4. (of a steam engine) Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.
      • 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:
        Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds.
    5. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
      a simple ascidian
    6. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
  8. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

simple (plural simples)

  1. (pharmacology) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
    • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
    • (Can we date this quote by Sir W. Temple and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
      The first fellow that picked an herb to cure himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful.
  2. (obsolete, by extension) A physician.
  3. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
  4. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels
  5. (weaving) A drawloom.
  6. (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
  7. (Roman Catholicism) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

Translations

Verb

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  1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.

Derived terms

Anagrams

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Adjective

simple (epicene, plural simples)

  1. simple (uncomplicated)

Synonyms

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

Adjective

simple m or f (masculine and feminine plural simples)

  1. simple (uncomplicated)
  2. single (not divided into parts)

Synonyms

Derived terms

Chavacano

Etymology

From Spanish simple (“simple”).

Adjective

simple

  1. simple

Esperanto

Etymology

From simpla +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsimple/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: sim‧ple

Adverb

simple

  1. simply

French

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

Adjective

French numbers (edit)
10
1 2  →  10  → 
    Cardinal: un
    Ordinal: premier
    Ordinal abbreviation: 1er
    Multiplier: simple
    Fractional: entier
French Wikipedia article on 1

simple (plural simples)

  1. single (multiplier)
    comptabilité en partie simple et double
    single-entry and double-entry bookkeping
    passer du simple au double, du simple au triple...
    to double, triple...
  2. simple
    Un homme simple
    A simple man
  3. one-way
    Un billet simple
    A one-way ticket
  4. mere
    Un simple soldat
    A mere soldier

Usage notes

The second and third meanings are taken when the adjective is placed after the noun. The fourth meaning is taken when it is located before the noun.

Descendants

  • → Romanian: simplu

Noun

simple m (plural simples)

  1. one-way ticket
  2. (baseball) single

Further reading

Anagrams

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex. Displaced Old Galician-Portuguese simplez.

Adjective

simple m or f (plural simples)

  1. simple

German

Adjective

simple

  1. inflection of simpel:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) simple

  1. vocative masculine singular of simplus

Middle English

Adjective

simple

  1. Alternative form of symple

Noun

simple

  1. Alternative form of symple

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

Template:nb-adj-form

  1. definite singular of simpel
  2. plural of simpel

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

Template:nn-adj-form

  1. definite singular of simpel
  2. plural of simpel

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Adjective

simple m (oblique and nominative feminine singular simple)

  1. innocent
  2. mere; simple
  3. honest; without pretense
  4. peasant, pauper (attributive)

Descendants

Romanian

Pronunciation

Adjective

simple

  1. feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of simplu

Spanish

Spanish numbers (edit)
10
1 2  →  10  → 
    Cardinal: uno
    Apocopated cardinal: un
    Ordinal: primero
    Apocopated ordinal: primer
    Ordinal abbreviation: 1.º
    Multiplier: simple
    Distributive: sendos
Spanish Wikipedia article on 1

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsimple/ [ˈsĩm.ple]

Adjective

simple m or f (masculine and feminine plural simples)

  1. simple (uncomplicated)
    Synonym: sencillo
    Antonyms: complicado, complejo
  2. (before the noun) mere, ordinary
    Synonym: mero
    Soy un simple pescador. ― I'm just a fisherman.
  3. simple, single (not divided into parts)
    Antonym: compuesto
  4. simple-minded, stupid
  5. insipid, flavorless
    Synonym: soso
  6. (grammar) simple

Derived terms

Descendants

Noun

simple m or f (plural simples)

  1. simpleton, fool
  2. (pharmacology, masculine only) simple

See also

Further reading

Swedish

Adjective

simple

  1. (deprecated template usage) definite natural masculine singular of simpel

Anagrams

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish simple.

Pronunciation

Adjective

símple

  1. simple; plain
    Synonyms: payak, yano, liso
    • 1994, Al O. Santiago, Sining ng pagsasaling-wika: sa Filipino mula sa Ingles‎[1], →ISBN:
      Simpleng-simple rin ang aklat na ito kung ihahambing sa aklat ni Mildred Larson.
      This book is also very simple compared to the book of Mildred Larson.
    • 2002, Yaman Ng Pagkatao i Tm' 2002 Ed.‎[2], Rex Bookstore, Inc., →ISBN, page 173:
      Ang boluntaryong pagpili ng simpleng pamumuhay ay isang desisyong maaari nating maisakatuparan.
      The voluntary choice of a simple life is a decision that we can carry out.
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