plainly

adverb

Definition of plainlynext
1
as in openly
in an honest and direct manner you'll have to tell your relatives very plainly that you don't like perfume, or they'll keep giving it to you

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in certainly
without any question your wife is plainly upset that you didn't invite her to the game with us

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of plainly Writing for Apartment Therapy, Noella Williams put the case plainly. — Lauren Schuster, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2026 Yann LeCun, the Turing laureate who ran Meta’s AI research for a decade before leaving in November 2025 to found Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, has been saying it plainly since 2023. — Stephen Messer, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026 Yet, plainly, conducting store-to-store checks of card readers is inefficient. — Eli Hager, ProPublica, 13 Oct. 2026 The vestiges of his fading memory flash by with a haunting plainness, the melancholy of all this Americana and the sadness of a mind ravaged by time strike the viewer plainly at the end of this maximalist piece of life-writing. — Stephanie Wambugu, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2026 But like a lot of plainly heroic characters controlled by a studio specializing in children’s stories, Vision’s emotional journey is slight. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 12 Oct. 2026 Material necessity plainly matters, as does the conviction that daughter names something a family cannot simply revoke. — Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2026 The distinction matters because officials plainly exercise that discretion later in the season. — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 6 Oct. 2026 If a product works for a specific age range, a specific temperature, a specific room size, a specific skin type, that needs to be stated plainly somewhere on the page. — Usman Ilyas, Forbes.com, 6 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plainly
  1. openly
  2. certainly
  3. sincerely
  4. surely
  5. plain
  6. definitely
  7. honestly
  8. clearly
Adverb
  • These provisions keep employers and plan sponsors from openly discussing their contract terms, which Cuban said blocks them from comparing fees and negotiating better deals.
    — Emma Witman, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Worse, while communist parties during the Cold War denied the crimes of the Soviet regime, some of today’s neo-Leninists openly defend them.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of openly
Adverb
  • While the iPhone Duo’s software certainly felt much smoother and more fluid than Android alternatives, many of its core features have been available on Samsung or Google phones for years.
    — Lisa Eadicicco, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026
  • From broader cultural debates, including race and equity, to how the league enforces its rules, there are certainly things the new WNBA commissioner will need to address next season and beyond.
    — Scott Thompson OutKick, FOXNews.com, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of certainly
Adverb
  • And incumbents can sincerely believe important work remains unfinished.
    — Nancy Forster-Holt, The Conversation, 6 Oct. 2026
  • In a scene at the beginning of Episode 8, actor Siena Agudong, who plays Sue, expresses Flanagan’s belief that sincerely openhearted people like Carrie are met with rejection and seen as alien in a world where cynicism is our default mode.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of sincerely
Adverb
  • August Barron was one of the breakout shows of the season; this windswept look will surely find its way onto the right red carpet.
    — Joan Kennedy, Vogue, 20 Oct. 2026
  • To move forward and, one day, make reparation would surely mean including voices that might have made Mike Wallace nervous, and perhaps fall well outside Weiss’s favored forty-yard lines.
    — Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of surely
Adverb
  • Is this tobacco-spitting, plain-talking Jon Sumrall a coaching amalgamation of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer?
    — Joe Rexrode, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2026
  • For a movie that had once been generating top Oscar buzz, including a potential first win for Cruise, it has since been hit with critiques that have described it as baffling, brilliant or just plain bad.
    — David Mack, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of plain
Adverb
  • Halloween candy hasn’t even been handed out yet, but Hilary Duff is definitely in a Christmas mood already.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Nolan will, most definitely, be in the running for best director once again, while the likes of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Samantha Morton, and Robert Pattinson are jostling for position in the various acting races.
    — Radhika Seth, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of definitely
Adverb
  • Start by honestly assessing whether your organization is open to accepting IT as a partner.
    — Ken Feyder, Forbes.com, 20 Oct. 2026
  • And honestly, it's been the other way—influencers have reached out to us for samples or collabs.
    — Khushbu Shah, Bon Appetit Magazine, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of honestly
Adverb
  • Orantes also expressed frustration with the handling of her father’s arrest — to which federal authorities had clearly alerted some media, who were brought along for the raid.
    — Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Albertsons’ reply will clearly be that trying hard was not what Kroger promised.
    — Shubha Ghosh, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of clearly

Browse Nearby Words

plain Janes
plainly
plainness
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Cite this Entry

“Plainly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plainly. Accessed 25 Oct. 2026.

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