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Simple
Definitions
- 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?"
- 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."
- 3 Without ornamentation; plain.
- 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."
- 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!"
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- 6 Trivial; insignificant. archaic
"‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’"
- 7 Feeble-minded; foolish. colloquial, euphemistic
- 8 Structurally uncomplicated.; Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
- 9 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.; Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial normal subgroups (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient groups). broadly
- 10 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.; Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial submodules (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient modules). broadly
- 11 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.; Being non-zero, and having no proper non-zero two-sided ideals (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient rings). For commutative rings, this definition coincides with that of a field. broadly
- 12 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.; Containing more than one element, and such that the only congruences on the structure are the diagonal relation (the equivalence relation a≡b⟺a=b) and the universal relation (the equivalence relation such that a≡b for all a,b). Equivalently, containing more than one element and having no proper non-trivial quotient algebras. broadly, universal
- 13 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.; Being non-isomorphic to the terminal object, and such that its only quotient objects (up to isomorphism) are the terminal object and itself. broadly
- 14 Structurally uncomplicated.; Being non-abelian and having no proper non-zero ideals. (Note that this is non-equivalent to the usual algebra sense; in particular, the abelian Lie algebra of dimension 1 over any given field is non-trivial and has no proper non-zero ideals, but is by convention not considered simple.)
- 15 Structurally uncomplicated.; Equal to a finite linear combination of indicator functions on measurable sets.
- 16 Structurally uncomplicated.; Not compound, but possibly lobed.
- 17 Structurally uncomplicated.; Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders. (of a steam engine)
"Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds."
- 18 Structurally uncomplicated.; Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
"a simple ascidian"
- 19 Structurally uncomplicated.; Homogenous.
- 20 Mere; not other than; being only. obsolete
"A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin."
- 1 easy and not involved or complicated wordnet
- 2 apart from anything else; without additions or modifications wordnet
- 3 unornamented wordnet
- 4 lacking mental capacity and subtlety wordnet
- 5 (botany) of leaf shapes; of leaves having no divisions or subdivisions wordnet
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- 6 having few parts; not complex or complicated or involved wordnet
- 7 exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity wordnet
- 1 A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
"Dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind."
- 2 a person lacking intelligence or common sense wordnet
- 3 A physician. broadly, obsolete
- 4 any herbaceous plant having medicinal properties wordnet
- 5 A simple or atomic proposition.
"Peter van Inwagen, for example, believes that there are no ordinary objects, no chairs or shirts or shoes. Right here there are just some simples — atoms or whatever — arranged shoe-wise."
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- 6 Something not mixed or compounded. obsolete
"But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels"
- 7 A drawloom.
- 8 Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
- 9 A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
- 1 To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs. archaic, intransitive, transitive
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English symple, simple, from Old French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc. Partially displaced native English onefold.
Inherited from Middle English symple, simple, from Old French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc. Partially displaced native English onefold.
Inherited from Middle English symple, simple, from Old French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc. Partially displaced native English onefold.
See also for "simple"
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