Plain vs Plant - What's the difference?
plain | plant |
* Bible, (w) xl. 4
Simple.
# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= # Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)
#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)
# (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
# (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
Obvious.
# Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.
#* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
Open.
# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
#* Felton
Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
(colloquial) Simply
(rare, poetic) A lamentation.
* 1815 , Sir ,
To lament, bewail.
* Bishop Joseph Hall
* ,
An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
* Milton
* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.
A battlefield.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) A .
(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
* Wither
(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
* Shakespeare
An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis. Typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= (botany) An organism of the kingdom Plantae''; now specifically, a living organism of the ''Embryophyta'' (land plants) or of the ''Chlorophyta'' (green algae), a eukaryote that includes double-membraned chloroplasts in its cells containing chlorophyll ''a'' and ''b , or any organism closely related to such an organism.
(ecology) Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
Any creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi.
A factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.
Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
(snooker) A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
* 2008 , Phil Yates, The Times , April 28 2008:
A large piece of machinery, such as the kind used in earthmoving or construction.
(obsolete) A young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.
* Dryden
(obsolete) The sole of the foot.
* Ben Jonson
* knotty legs and plants of clay
(dated, slang) A plan; a swindle; a trick.
* Charles Dickens
An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
(US, dialect) A young oyster suitable for transplanting.
To place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
To place (an object, or sometimes a person), often with the implication of intending deceit.
To place or set something firmly or with conviction.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=January 15
, author=Sam Sheringham
, title=Chelsea 2 - 0 Blackburn Rovers
, work=BBC
To place in the ground.
* 2007 , Richard Laymon, Savage , page 118:
To furnish or supply with plants.
To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.
* Shakespeare
To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish.
* Francis Bacon
To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of.
To set up; to install; to instate.
* Shakespeare
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between plain and plant
is that plain is (obsolete) a while plant is (obsolete) the sole of the foot.As nouns the difference between plain and plant
is that plain is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief while plant is an organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.As verbs the difference between plain and plant
is that plain is to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface while plant is to place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.As an adjective plain
is .As an adverb plain
is (colloquial) simply.plain
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
- plain yet pious Christians
- the plain people
- In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
- an honest mind, and plain
- Our troops beat an army in plain fight.
Synonyms
* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See alsoAntonyms
* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornateDerived terms
* plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainnessAdverb
(-)- It was just plain stupid.
- I plain forgot.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .Alternative forms
* pleinNoun
(en noun)The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IX
- The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,
- The mother's screams, were heard in vain;
Verb
(en verb)- to plain a loss
- Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.
More Poems, XXV, lines 5-9
- Then came I crying, and to-day,
- With heavier cause to plain ,
- Depart I into death away,
- Not to be born again.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia plain) (en noun)- Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .
- For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”
- (Arbuthnot)
- Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .
Synonyms
* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppeAntonyms
* cliff * gorge * mountain * valeDerived terms
* abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plainSee also
* grassland * meadowVerb
(en verb)- We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
- What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.
Statistics
*Anagrams
* English degree adverbs ----plant
English
{{picdic , image=Ranunculus asiaticus4LEST.jpg , width=250 , height=400 , detail1= , detail2= }}Noun
(s)Katrina G. Claw
Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, volume=101, issue=3, page=217, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants , the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual. Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.}}
- O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.
- a plant of stubborn oak
- It wasn't a bad plant , that of mine, on Fikey.
Usage notes
The scientific definition of what organisms should be considered plants changed dramatically during the 20th century. Bacteria, algae, and fungi are no longer considered plants by those who study them. Many textbooks do not reflect the most current thinking on classification.Derived terms
* houseplant * planter * plantlet * plantly * plant-pot * pot-plant * power plant * plant roomVerb
(en verb)- That gun's not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!
- Plant your feet firmly and give the rope a good tug.
- to plant''' cannon against a fort; to '''plant''' a flag; to '''plant one's feet on solid ground
citation, page= , passage=First Anelka curled a shot wide from just outside the box, then Lampard planted a header over the bar from Bosingwa's cross.}}
- Sarah, she kissed each of her grandparents on the forehead. They were planted in a graveyard behind the church.
- to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest
- It engenders choler, planteth anger.
- to plant a colony
- planting of countries like planting of woods
- to plant Christianity among the heathen
- We will plant some other in the throne.