simplest

Adjective

simple (comparative simpler or more simple, superlative simplest or most simple)

1. Uncomplicated; lacking complexity; taken by itself, with nothing added.
   • We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   onefold, austere, bare, bare-bones, bargain, basic, cheap, default, discreet, economy

   Antonyms:

   subtle

2. Easy; not difficult.
   • There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 167

   Synonyms:

   basic, trivial, as a duck takes to water, easy, prosaic, no-fuss, easy as 123, easy as ABC, easy as cake, easy as pie

   Antonyms:

   challenging, hard, arduous, nasty, difficult, sticky, effortful, rough, rocky, thistly

3. Without ornamentation; plain.

   Synonyms:

   austere, plain, bare, chaste, inornate, modest, quiet, severe, spartan, unadorned

   Antonyms:

   flashy, tinselly, bedizened, blatant, blingish, brash, campy, catchpenny, chichi, chintzy

4. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
   • Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.1605, Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], The Dutch Courtezan. […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for Iohn Hodgets, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   Synonyms:

   sincere, unaffected, earnest, fair dinkum, forthright, downright, upfront, foursquare, frank, genuine

   Antonyms:

   crafty, guileful, astute, artful, cautelous, cunning, devious, diabolical, foxlike, foxy

5. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
   • Garak: Who would want to kill me, a simple tailor? / Odo: A simple tailor? A simple tailor who used to be an agent of the Obsidian Order!1995 April 24, Improbable Cause (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), season 3, number 20 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   common, low-born, ordinary, vulgar

   Antonyms:

   eminent, gentle, notable, highborn, well-born

6. (archaic) Trivial; insignificant.
   • ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum LV”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich]...

   Synonyms:

   inconsequential, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable

   Antonyms:

   significant, big, central, consequential, critical, crucial, epochful, essential, extraordinary, fateful

See all 28 meanings of simple