adv ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   In a plain manner; simply; basically.

   "She decorated the room plainly but neatly."

2. 2
   Obviously; clearly.

   "You will see that ours is plainly the better method."

Adverb

1. 1
   in a simple manner; without extravagance or embellishment wordnet
2. 2
   unmistakably (‘plain’ is often used informally for ‘plainly’) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

apparentlyabove-boardall joking asidealonealoudapparently

Antonyms

All antonyms

openly

Example

More examples

"So that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.