How to Use plain in a Sentence

plain

1 of 3 adjective
Definition of plainnext
Synonyms for plainnext
  • What he said is a lie, plain and simple.
  • It was a plain room with no curtains.
  • She was wearing plain black shoes.
  • He printed the picture on plain paper.
  • You don't have to call me Mr. Johnson—just plain Fred will be fine.
  • That's a – that's a plain fact that no one can dispute.
    — Liz Cheney, CBS News, 7 Jan. 2024
  • That, more than anything, is what the mug shot makes plain.
    — Jason Parham, WIRED, 28 Aug. 2023
  • This is on the Chief Justice to solve, plain and simple.
    — Justin Elliott, ProPublica, 4 May 2023
  • And the quick contrast of an eclipse makes this effect plain to see.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 6 Apr. 2024
  • Alek Wek emerged first, wearing a plain Thom Browne suit and a head scarf.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
  • One was clearly the patch in their card, the other a plain piece of white fabric.
    — Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024
  • Start with a plain green T-shirt and matching leggings or a skirt.
    — Katie Bowlby, Country Living, 30 July 2023
  • To us, gray and plain and empty has a certain beauty to it.
    — Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 5 May 2023
  • Draw targets on a plain t-shirt and dip the Q-Tips in food coloring.
    — Leah Campano, Seventeen, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Fill in with plain orange pumpkins and lanterns filled with small gourds.
    — Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Sep. 2023
  • The view is a slice of plain Queens life, hazed and softened like a pleasant memory.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 20 Sep. 2023
  • Meals were small portions of plain spaghetti, tortillas, and rice and beans.
    — Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Wear it on its own, or throw on a plain black blazer and pair it with black tights for a warmer, complete look.
    — Stephanie Osmanski, Southern Living, 2 Dec. 2023
  • That said, a plain glass of water isn’t your only option.
    — Julia Ries, SELF, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Eco-friendly or not, the king's coronation day look was far from plain.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 May 2023
  • In terms of sugar, many recipes keep it simple with plain white sugar.
    — Sam Burros, Peoplemag, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Beijing’s hypocrisy and the distance between its rhetoric and deeds are also plain to see.
    — Alexander Gabuev, Foreign Affairs, 9 Apr. 2024
  • Broken tree limbs make adorable accents for plain white shelves.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Mar. 2024
  • There were shiny marble floors, plain white walls, and a faux-stone spiral slide cascading down to the pool.
    — ELLE Decor, 7 June 2023
  • So probably a skirt or plain pants, a kind of flowy top, and jewelry.
    — Lynn Trenning - Correspondent, Charlotte Observer, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Little did anyone know that the suit had been hiding in almost plain sight for decades — and was about to be found again.
    — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2023
  • And then there’s the beauty of Chopin —the plain power of his music and his highly memorable melodies.
    — Vulture Staff, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2023
  • And if that's still too plain, maybe grab this multi-colored straw tote instead.
    — Alyssa Grabinski, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Purchase plain cork coasters, or cut squares from a sheet of thin cork and help the kids decorate them with acrylic paint.
    — Emily Vanschmus, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 June 2023
  • Use the ghosts to decorate a plain table runner or glue them to pumpkins.
    — Charlyne Mattox, Country Living, 21 June 2023
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plain

2 of 3 noun
  • The plain is marked by hills, rivers and small lakes and tundra.
    — Bybecky Bohrer, Fortune, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The plain is marked by hills, rivers, and small lakes and tundra.
    — Becky Bohrer and Matthew Daly, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The Plastics and their tactics are meant to be as feral as the African plains.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 Jan. 2024
  • The route out of the capital passed through the flat desert plain surrounding Qom.
    — Azadeh Moaveni, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • In the later image, fresh lava had spewed to form a new plain.
    — Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Feb. 2024
  • The departure adds to questions about the prospects for oil drilling in the refuge’s 1.6 million-acre coastal plain.
    — Alex Demarban, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Aug. 2022
  • Outside the city, on the broad and dusty plain of the pampas, is the landscape that provides the country its power.
    — Noah Gallagher Shannon, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2022
  • On the back side of the storm, across the plains of South Dakota and Nebraska, heavy snow is possible.
    — Kenton Gewecke, ABC News, 23 Dec. 2023
  • The bison roam the plains, so take caution when driving, and do not approach them.
    — Amanda Ogle, Travel + Leisure, 3 June 2023
  • The year is 1857; the place, the scorching, sparsely populated plains of Texas.
    — Allison Robicelli, Washington Post, 21 June 2023
  • Thank god nice moments like this still happen on this cursed plain.
    — Serena Dai, Bon Appétit, 19 Dec. 2022
  • The sunset sets beautifully over the plain before the stars burn bright.
    — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 June 2023
  • Delhi and much of the Indo-Gangetic plain saw clear skies between April and June 2020.
    — Manavi Kapur, Quartz, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Two friends separate, with one of them living in the plains and the other going to live in the mountains.
    — New York Times, 4 May 2023
  • Drained lake basins make up more than half of the Arctic coastal plain, the part of the Alaska map that most resembles Swiss cheese.
    — Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Aug. 2022
  • It was also concentrated more in the plains and the Midwest.
    — Nbc Universal, NBC News, 10 Sep. 2023
  • The main seller is the natural plain, (Driftless) and that’s my favorite.
    — Kristine M. Kierzek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Making the movie left the duo laboring for 100 days in the oppressive heat of the Oklahoma plains.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 22 Feb. 2024
  • In between the two in size is silt, a mix of rock dust and minerals often found in fertile flood plains.
    — Brian Darby, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2024
  • Beavers waddled the Texas coastal plain at least 22 million years ago and are found through most of eastern Texas today.
    — Adithi Ramakrishnan, Dallas News, 28 Mar. 2023
  • The village of Castelluccio, on a bluff overlooking the plain, was all but destroyed in 2016.
    — Julia Buckley, Travel + Leisure, 10 Sep. 2023
  • Sphagnum bogs, rocky plateaus, and huckleberry plains give way to some 47 miles of trails.
    — Condé Nast, Bon Appétit, 14 Mar. 2023
  • The property boasts 20 elevated rooms with views over the marula and baobab trees that dot the Tarangire plains.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Interior coastal plains are forecast to reach into the 90s, and downtown L.A. will peak in the high 80s.
    — Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2023
  • But for a lo-fi bagel, the 365 plain would do well on hectic mornings, stuffed in your kid's hand before shooing them off to school.
    — Sam Stone, Bon Appétit, 27 June 2023
  • The four-part carousel featured pics of a hike with Gwendolyn and Joshua, James next to his brother Jared, and two stunning sunsets over the open plain.
    — Janine Henni, Peoplemag, 8 Mar. 2023
  • All occur statewide, or at least in each of our main regions — mountain, piedmont, and coastal plain.
    — Miri Talabac, baltimoresun.com, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Each one started as a fragment of something else—a tiny fossil, a scrap of basalt, a shark’s tooth—that drifted down to the plain at the very bottom of the ocean.
    — WIRED, 28 Feb. 2023
  • The coastal plain, which lies along the Beaufort Sea on Alaska's northeastern edge, is marked by hills, rivers and small lakes and tundra.
    — Becky Bohrer, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Sep. 2023
  • The track’s open-air grandeur and opulent strings gives Springsteen’s sorrow a great plain on which to boldly roam.
    — A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 11 Nov. 2022
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plain

3 of 3 adverb
  • In the kitchen, as in life, so much is just about the plain old nuts and bolts.
    — Yotam Ottolenghi, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2023
  • At nearly $1,800, the Fold is plain out of reach to many.
    — Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 10 May 2023
  • Some foods are just plain lucky to eat on New Year’s Eve.
    — USA TODAY, 29 Dec. 2022
  • Grilling a green bean is just plain awesome, and the idea of the sauce is a crowning moment.
    — Fred Thompson, Charlotte Observer, 30 Jan. 2024
  • There’s no easy way to put it: Lower back pain just plain sucks.
    — Women's Health, 11 Feb. 2023
  • Joséphine wore a plain white gown evocative of a wedding dress.
    — Nathan Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Nov. 2023
  • These books range from the literary to the historical to the plain weird.
    — Jim Ruland, Los Angeles Times, 10 Mar. 2024
  • Pair 'em up with your favorite high-tops to add '80s flair to a plain white sneaker.
    — Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 14 July 2023
  • But all that plain white plaster ends when the Boise builder opens the door to a small room seven years in the making.
    — Maria L. La Ganga, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
  • That much will be plain enough to visitors from the outside.
    — Kriston Capps, Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Tried scooting back to the rear of the seat, but then pedaling was plain awkward.
    — Scott Kramer, Forbes, 2 Apr. 2023
  • Reynolds looked cool in a dusty-green button-up layered over a plain white tee.
    — Rosa Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Sep. 2023
  • As usual, this is clever, funny, odd, and just plain cool.
    — Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 12 July 2012
  • Just stir and a plain-old cup of joe becomes a heavenly mocha.
    — Jessica Cherner, House Beautiful, 11 Nov. 2022
  • One pair will come in a plain white colorway while the other will be a brown and white cow print.
    — Kerane Marcellus, Essence, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Use plain unflavored Greek yogurt to make the thick batter, then fold in the berries.
    — Chris Morris, BostonGlobe.com, 30 June 2023
  • This three-pack of pure silk scrunchies protects hair from damage — and looks just plain cute, too.
    — Alesandra Dubin, Woman's Day, 27 Dec. 2022
  • There is and always will be a need for a plain old bucket, regardless of the size or scope of your project.
    — Tom Price, Popular Mechanics, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Some have been just plain fun, like meeting the actor Michael B. Jordan.
    — Madison Malone Kircher, New York Times, 23 Mar. 2023
  • Benito wore a plain white tee, a brown jacket, black pants, and tan shoes.
    — Briannah Rivera, Seventeen, 2 May 2023
  • Even the racing programs were just plain white sheet paper.
    — Stephanie Kuzydym, The Courier-Journal, 10 June 2023
  • The eastern façade was left plain, to show that the building is a reconstruction.
    — Ian Johnson, The New York Review of Books, 4 May 2023
  • Yeah, George, voters are just plain frustrated across the board.
    — ABC News, 5 Nov. 2023
  • That’s a plain-old-modernist move, the same as marketing a car with scenes of hot people on a sweet road trip.
    — Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2022
  • Tuck a plain white pocket square into the breast pocket for a monotone look.
    — Brad Lanphear, Men's Health, 19 Aug. 2023
  • This adorable novelty pillow is one of those things that’s just plain fun.
    — Samantha Booth, Rolling Stone, 21 Nov. 2023
  • Two months ago, Jenner wore similar jeans and a plain white tee at…maybe this same house?
    — Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Choose an Interesting Crib Your crib doesn't have to be plain white or wood.
    — Hadley Mendelsohn, House Beautiful, 28 July 2023
  • Unlike a plain square weave pattern (one thread over, one thread under), a float means the pattern skips threads.
    — Theresa Holland, Peoplemag, 14 June 2023
  • And while many of Armstrong’s complaints about the media are fair, some are misguided and just plain wrong.
    — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 12 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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