How to use plainly in a sentence
40 example sentences · adverb
Plainly means in a plain manner; simply; basically. Example: “She decorated the room plainly but neatly.”
Examples of plainly by meaning
adverbIn 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
adverbObviously; clearly.
- You will see that ours is plainly the better method.
- 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
More sentences with plainly
- During the debate, they disagreed plainly, but moderately.From the entry moderately
- Did it mean if they spoke plainly to him that they were Australian too?2013, Alexis Wright, The Swan Book, Constable (2016), page 146. From the entry un-Australian
- The lover's passion was yet upon them; each to the other was plainly aureoled.1996, Mary Johnston, Cease Firing, page 134. From the entry aureoled
- They are very hard and flat and, to put it plainly, uninteresting looking until they are deep-fried.1988, Johanna Bates, Let's Go Dutch, page 111. From the entry kroepoek
- Plainly, automatistic acts are concomitants of mental disturbance of some kind.1962, Monrad G. Paulsen, Sanford H. Kadish, Criminal law and its processes: cases and materials. From the entry automatistic
- Excellent inn, the George, plainly the best in Lichfield, and staffed with good, kindly people.1945, Nikolai Tolstoy, quoting Patrick O’Brian, “‘The smallest habitation I had ever seen’”, in Patrick O’Brian: The Making of the…. From the entry Miss Austenish
- Putting it plainly, they told me that what I wrote was tommy-rot.1938, Siegfried Sassoon, The Old Century, Faber and Faber, published 1967, page 154. From the entry tommyrot
- Turkington's bright mop of red hair had plainly never known slickem.1927, Copy ...1927: Stories, Plays, Poems, and Essays, page 82. From the entry slickem
- Mona plainly showed her sorrow, according to the caretakers; she hasn’t been the same monkeyess since then.1926 March 27, “Mona’s Mourning Days Are Over; She Cuts Monkey Shines Now”, in Kenosha Evening News, volume XXXII, number 121, Kenosha…. From the entry monkeyess
- Their faces showed, all too plainly, exactly who and what they were.1917, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, quoting Carlos F. Hurd, chapter II, in [Untitled, From the St. Louis Post Dispatch], July 3rd, 1917, quoted in…. From the entry womanhood
- And the girl's fate he could picture as plainly as though he were an eyewitness to it.1915, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan. From the entry eyewitness
- The glovemaker's apprentice had become a great painter, as the picture plainly proved.1909, Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Fairy tales, Queen's ed edition, Ward, page 338. From the entry glovemaker
- “I want him to go to jail,” Megan says plainly.2022 June 15, Mankaprr Conteh, “Megan Thee Stallion Will Not Back Down”, in Rolling Stone. From the entry under the jail
- The police said that his gun was "plainly visible", and they seemed to imply that he was open-carrying.2012 July 31, Mike_Fontenot, “Re: So Much For CC Permits”, in rec.guns (Usenet). From the entry open-carry
- The police were plainly on his side.2011 July 27, Jon Henley, “Rupert Murdoch and the battle of Wapping: 25 years on”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry bend over backwards
- This was plainly killing Kerra who was a talk-aholic.2009, W. Shane Wilson, Enter the Guardians: Kyl, →ISBN, page 34. From the entry talkaholic
- I hear it plainly down the phone: "Hi Shrek!2008 January 26, Susie Boyt, “With trousers come responsibilities”, in Financial Times, London, page 7. From the entry Shrekky
- Sometimes they were plainly woven, but fustians could also be fashioned with “tufts” creating fabric like corduroy or velveteen.2007, Susan M. Ouellette, “Flax from the Field, Cotton from the Sea”, in US Textile Production in Historical Perspective: A Case Study…. From the entry fustian
- In the face of "words so plainly put together," the fact that slavery was neither sin nor abomination was "inconcussible'."1999, Felicity Allen, Jefferson Davis, Unconquerable Heart, page 248. From the entry inconcussible
- Fear of what the bible plainly says.1998 April 8, Rihannsu Alien, quoting Jacob Rossman, “Current Scholarship on Homosexuals & the Bible”, in alt.christnet.christianlife…. From the entry bibliophobia
- Plainly derived from the well-known T35 shape, it is lower and sleeker, and distinguished by its unique radial-spoked wheels.1992, Gordon Cruikshank, For Millionaires Only […] , London: Apple, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry wheelrim
- The myth therefore records the full gamut of creation, of both gods and men, and is plainly a priestly document.1983, Burr Cartwright Brundage, “The Goddesses”, in The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World (The Texas Pan American Series), Austin, Tex.…. From the entry tellurian
- Where the horrible clamor had merely set my nerves ajangle, it had plainly lacerated her like some evil bullwhip.1979, William Styron, chapter 15, in Sophie’s Choice, New York: Random House, page 462. From the entry ajangle
- Instead, its occurrence in such a context is plainly gender-specific.1977, Janice Moulton, “The Myth of the Neutral “Man””, in Mary Vetterling-Braggin, Frederick A. Elliston, Jane English, editors, Feminism…. From the entry gender-neutrally
- This plainly implies that an equine animal either is of the feminine gender or is of the neuter persuasion.1967, Taxes. The Tax Magazine, volume 45, number 2, page 698. From the entry persuasion
- You wouldn’t show up from that balloon as plainly as an ant, in crawling around our Capitol building at Washington.1939, Ernest Vincent Wright, chapter XII, in Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E”, Los Angeles, Calif.…. From the entry inconspicuosity
- Phillip is plainly fustered instead of being friendly.1932, School Activities - Volumes 4-6, page 7. From the entry fustered
- They 'planed over isolated oases of green timber, in each of which were plainly seen the white ashes of native fires.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 22. From the entry 'plane
- She stood in the shaft of light that streamed through the open door, and he saw her plainly.1927, William Byron Mowery, Pirates Of The Muskeg. From the entry completely and utterly
- Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.1921, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 26, in The Indiscretions of Archie. From the entry nefarious
- The little room in which he found himself was plainly the bookseller's sanctum, and contained his own private library.1919, Christopher Morley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC. From the entry browse
- Could he have seen, Carrados would have received the impression of a plainly, almost dowdily, dressed young woman of buxom figure.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados. From the entry dowdily
- It was plainly a labor of love, due to the old mansion and the master who had made it famous.1914, Western Christian Advocate, LXXX, page 10. From the entry ciceronical
- The only fictionish thing about it is his having written it in the first person as he tells the reader plainly.1908, Maria Price La Touche, The Letters of a Noble Woman (Mrs. La Touche of Harristown), page 188. From the entry fictionish
- As these borders are troublesome to construct and too often plainly show their joints, the Fac Initial is seldom made now.1907, De Vinne Press, Types of the De Vinne Press, page 45. From the entry fac
- That, plainly, has stopped and so, to repeat, it is imperative that the transfer of ownership happens with a degree of speed.March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian. From the entry degree
Meaning of plainly
- adverb In a plain manner; simply; basically.
- adverb Obviously; clearly.
Questions about plainly in a sentence
- How do you use plainly in a sentence?
- Plainly is used as an adverb. For example: “She decorated the room plainly but neatly.”
- What is a short sentence with plainly?
- “Fear of what the bible plainly says.”
- What does plainly mean?
- Plainly means in a plain manner; simply; basically.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: plainly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use plainly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/plainly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
