Qualities
Synonyms for plain
Synonyms for plain: spare, homely, apparent and unvarnished. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 4 synonyms for plain
Interchangeable with plain, one per sense
Audited under plain's own entry, so the meaning quoted is the one plain carries in that sense.
- spareadjective, in the sense "lacking embellishment or ornamentation"
- homelyadjective, in the sense "lacking in physical beauty or proportion"
Recorded from the other side of the pair
These entries were written under the other word and name plain as the true synonym, so the sense quoted is theirs.
- apparentapparent is an adjective in the sense "clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment"
- unvarnishedunvarnished is an adjective in the sense "free from any effort to soften to disguise"
Two directions, one standard: two audited under plain and two under the partner word. Nothing here was expanded out of a thesaurus.
lacking embellishment or ornamentation
A plain hair style.
plain in 2 more sentences, same sense
- The office required a plain uniform with no logos or decorative stitching.
- She chose a plain envelope for the letter instead of one printed with flowers.
How it behaves: In this sense plain usually modifies a concrete noun for clothing, decor, or design, and appears in neutral, everyday registers rather than formal or technical writing.
The true synonym
spare
Same sentence, swapped: A spare hair style.
Close but different
These three are the other tiles the game puts on screen for this sense, and the note above says why the closest of them fails. None is a synonym for plain in the sentence quoted.
- sheer
- apparent
- regular
Opposites, in this sense
ornate, fancy and elaborate reverse plain as it is used in the sentence above. A different sense of plain takes different opposites, which is why these sit inside the sense and not at the top of the page.
- ornate
- fancy
- elaborate
lacking in physical beauty or proportion
A plain girl with a freckled face.
The true synonym
homely
Same sentence, swapped: A homely girl with a freckled face.
Close but different
Wrong tiles, chosen to be tempting rather than absurd. The reason line above takes the nearest one apart; the rest fail the same sentence for their own reasons.
- sheer
- apparent
- regular
Where plain turns up in the game
plain is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across two difficulty tiers. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in two other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where plain is the trap
- broadadjective, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is wide, in the sense "broad in scope or content", and plain is one of the three tiles that lose.
- basicadjective, Tier 4, High Camp. The answer there is introductory, in the sense "serving as a base or starting point", and plain is on the board beside it.
Play plain
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so plain reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
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Closest first: other qualities words at Foothills, then the same tier across the rest of the library.
Why the near miss missed, in the game as well as here
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. plain carries 2 written reason lines, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.