What does "simple" mean?
A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
Simple
/ˈsɪm.pəl/ adj, noun, verb, slang
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
- Grammar: simple is listed as adj, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: elementary, uncomplicated, a certain, absolute.
- Useful contrasts: frugal, learned, overwrought.
- Usage evidence: I can't tell her now. It's not that simple anymore.
How to use "simple"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "simple" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "simple" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "simple" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "simple" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "simple" is acting as adj, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "elementary" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "simple", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 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."
Show 4 more definitions
- 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.
Verb
- 1 To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs. archaic, intransitive, transitive
Adjective
- 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!"
Show 15 more definitions
- 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."
Adjective
- 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
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 having few parts; not complex or complicated or involved wordnet
- 7 exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"I can't tell her now. It's not that simple anymore."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "simple"?
Common synonyms include: elementary, uncomplicated, a certain, absolute, absurd, accessible resources.
How do you use "simple" in a sentence?
I can't tell her now. It's not that simple anymore.
How do you pronounce "simple"?
Pronounced /ˈsɪm.pəl/.
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.