Word.ws English Dictionary

plainly

/ˈpleɪnli/

plainly adverb: in a plain manner; simply; basically.

Adverb

plainly (comparative plainlier or more plainly, superlative plainliest or most plainly)

  1. In a plain manner; simply; basically.
    • She decorated the room plainly but neatly.
    • 'Tell me plainly what you think of my daughter's little companion.'1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 95
  2. Obviously; clearly.
    • You will see that ours is plainly the better method.
    • The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows...1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    expressly

plainly meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

plainly in Tamil

வினையுரிச்சொல்

plainly in Urdu

صاف

plainly in Malayalam

നേരെ തെളിവായി, വളച്ചുകെട്ടില്ലാതെ, വ്യക്തമായി, പ്രകടമായി

Examples of plainly in a sentence

  • They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
  • Plainly he was prepared to bark out an interminable succession of charges against the Wanderer.1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 3:

All 40 example sentences with plainly

Synonyms of plainly

Forms of plainly

comparativeplainlier
comparativemore plainly
superlativeplainliest
superlativemost plainly

Origin of plainly

From Middle English playnly, pleinly, pleyneliche, equivalent to plain + -ly.

Words that rhyme with plainly

Questions about plainly

What does plainly mean?
Plainly means in a plain manner; simply; basically.
What is plainly in Tamil?
Plainly in Tamil is வினையுரிச்சொல். See Plainly meaning in Tamil.
How do you use plainly in a sentence?
They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.
What part of speech is plainly?
Plainly is an adverb.
How do you pronounce plainly?
Plainly is pronounced /ˈpleɪnli/.

Words near plainly in the dictionary

  1. plainland
  2. plainlands
  3. plainlier
  4. plainliest
  5. plainlike
  6. plainly
  7. plainness
  8. plainnesses
  9. plains
  10. Plains Apache
  11. plains bison

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plainly (page history and authors); plainly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plainly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plainly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-plainly.ogg.

Cite this entry: “plainly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plainly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.