simple

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)

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• Audio (UK)

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• 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.
   • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:

     “[…] 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.
   • John Marston (ca.1576-1634)

     Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.

   • Lord Byron (1788-1824)

     Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?

   • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

     To be simple is to be great.

4. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
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. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.

      a simple ascidian

   5. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
8. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

     A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

Noun

simple (plural simples)

1. (medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: […] Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
     , II.37:

     I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.

   • Sir W. Temple

     What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.

2. (obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.
3. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
4. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
   • Shakespeare

     compounded of many simples

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.

Verb

simple (third-person singular simple present simples, present participle simpling, simple past and past participle simpled)

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

Anagrams

• LEMSIP, impels

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Adjective

simple (epicene, plural simples)

1. simple (uncomplicated)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /ˈsim.plə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsim.ple/

Adjective

simple (masculine and feminine plural simples)

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

Etymology

From Spanish simple (“simple”).

Adjective

simple

1. simple

Etymology

From simpla +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

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

Adverb

simple

1. simply

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃pl/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

simple (plural simples)

1. simple

   Un homme simple

   A simple man

2. one-way

   Un billet simple

   A one-way ticket

3. mere

   Un simple soldat

   A mere soldier

Noun

simple m (plural simples)

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

Further reading

• “simple” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• emplis

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex. Displaced Old Portuguese simplez.

Adjective

simple m, f (plural simples)

1. simple

Adjective

simple

1. inflected form of simpel

Adjective

simple

1. vocative masculine singular of simplus

Adjective

simple

1. Alternative form of symple

Noun

simple

1. Alternative form of symple

Adjective

simple

1. definite singular of simpel
2. plural of simpel

Adjective

simple

1. definite singular of simpel
2. plural of simpel

Alternative forms

• sinple

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 (attibutive)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsim.ple]

Adjective

simple

1. inflection of simplu:
   1. feminine plural nominative
   2. feminine plural accusative
   3. neuter plural nominative
   4. neuter plural accusative

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsimple/, [ˈsĩmple]

Adjective

simple (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

Noun

simple m, f (plural simples)

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

Further reading

• “simple” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Adjective

simple

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of simpel.