Simple vs Dumb - What's the difference?
simple | dumb |
Uncomplicated; 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?”
*2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,
*:There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
Without ornamentation; plain.
Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
* (ca.1576-1634)
*:Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
*(Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
*:Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
*(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)
*:To be simple is to be great.
Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
Trivial; insignificant.
*1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:
*:‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
Feeble-minded; foolish.
Structurally uncomplicated.
#(lb) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
#(lb) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
#(lb) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
#(lb) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
#:
#(lb) Homogenous.
(lb) Mere; not other than; being only.
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:A medicinewhose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.
(medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
*, II.37:
*:I know there are some simples , which in operation are moistening and some drying.
*Sir W. Temple
*:What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
(obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.
(logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
(obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
*Shakespeare
*:compounded of many simples
(weaving) A drawloom.
(weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
(Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
(transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.
(label) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
* Hooker
(label) Silent; unaccompanied by words.
* Shakespeare
*
* J. C. Shairp
extremely stupid.
(label) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.
* De Foe
To silence.
* 1911 , Lindsay Swift, William Lloyd Garrison , p. 272,
To make stupid.
* 2003 , Angela Calabrese Barton, Teaching Science for Social Justice , p. 124,
To represent as stupid.
* 2004 , Stephen Oppenheimer, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa , p. 107,
To reduce the intellectual demands of.
* 2002 , Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing , p. 126,
As adjectives the difference between simple and dumb
is that simple is uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added while dumb is unable to speak; lacking power of speech.As verbs the difference between simple and dumb
is that simple is to gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs while dumb is to silence.As a noun simple
is a preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.simple
English
Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold * (having few parts or features) plain * See alsoAntonyms
* (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated * (uncomplicated) subtleDerived terms
* fee simple * future simple * oversimple * past simple * plain and simple * present simple * pure and simple * simple beam * simple connectivity * simple contract * simple dislocation * simple equation * simple extension * simple eye * simple fraction * simple fracture * simple fruit * simple function * simple future * simple group * simple harmonic motion * simple-hearted * simple interest * simple leaf * simple linear regression * simple machine * simple mastectomy * simple microscope * simple-minded * simple past * simple pendulum * simple pistil * simple pole * simple present * simple protein * simple regression * simple sentence * Simple Simon * simple sugar * simple syrup * simple time * simple trust * simplehead * simpleness * simpless * simplex * simply * single * simplicity * simpletonNoun
(en noun)Verb
(simpl)Derived terms
* simpler * simplist * simplifyStatistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----dumb
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) dumb, from (etyl) . In ordinary spoken English, a phrase like "He is dumb" is interpreted as "He is stupid" rather than "He lacks the power of speech". The latter example, however, is the original sense of the word. The senses of stupid'', ''unintellectual'', and ''pointless developed under the influence of the (etyl) word dumm.Adjective
(er)- to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures
- dumb show
- This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
- to pierce into the dumb past
- You are so dumb ! You don't even know how to make toast!
- This is dumb ! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!
- Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
- Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color.
Synonyms
* (unable to speak) dumbstruck, mute, speechless, wordless * (stupid) feeble-minded, idiotic, moronic, stupid * banal, brainless, dopey, silly, stupid, ridiculous, vulgarDerived terms
* dumb as a box of rocks * dumben * dumbhood * dummy * dumbnessEtymology 2
From (etyl) dumbien, from (etyl) dumbian (more commonly in compound .Verb
(en verb)- The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.
- I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
- Bad-mouthing Neanderthals . . . is symptomatic of a need to exclude and even demonize. . . . I suggest that the unproven dumbing of the Neanderthals is an example of the same cultural preconception.
- The ensuing storm caused the department to lower the bar—amid protests that this was dumbing the test down—so that only 80 percent of urban kids would fail.