Entry Word: plain

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 free from all additions or embellishment <I like my hamburgers plain, with no ketchup or relish> <just give us the plain facts and none of your snide comments>

Synonyms bald, bare, naked, simple, unadorned, undecorated, unvarnished

Related Words chaste, modest; unexaggerated, unsophisticated; denuded, divested, stripped; dry, laconic, terse; unpretentious; austere, bleak, severe, spartan, stark; inconspicuous, muted, restrained, subdued, toned (down), unobtrusive; conservative, quiet, understated

Near Antonyms flamboyant, flashy, garish, gaudy, glittery, glitzy, loud, ostentatious, showy, splashy, swank (or swanky), tawdry; bedizened, florid, lurid, ornate; exaggerated, overdecorated, overdone, overwrought; baroque, extravagant, rococo; arrayed, bedecked, decked-out, dressed, garnished, trimmed

Antonyms adorned, decorated, embellished, fancy, ornamented

2 free from added matter <Iʼd prefer my pasta plain, not flavored with tomato or spinach or anything else> — see pure 1
3 free in expressing oneʼs true feelings and opinions <the piano teacher is honest and plain, if not always tactful> — see frank
4 going straight to the point clearly and firmly <a plain report on the current situation> — see straightforward 1
5 not subject to misinterpretation or more than one interpretation <let me make my meaning plain> — see clear 2