PLAINNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does plainness mean? 

• PLAINNESS (noun)
  The noun PLAINNESS has 4 senses:

1. the state of being unmixed with other material

2. clarity as a consequence of being perspicuous

3. the appearance of being plain and unpretentious

4. an appearance that is not attractive or beautiful

  Familiarity information: PLAINNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLAINNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being unmixed with other material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

the plainness of vanilla ice cream

Hypernyms ("plainness" is a kind of...):

pureness; purity (being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material)

Derivation:

plain (not mixed with extraneous elements)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Clarity as a consequence of being perspicuous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

perspicuity; perspicuousness; plainness

Hypernyms ("plainness" is a kind of...):

clarity; clearness; limpidity; lucidity; lucidness; pellucidity (free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression)

Derivation:

plain (clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The appearance of being plain and unpretentious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("plainness" is a kind of...):

appearance; visual aspect (outward or visible aspect of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plainness"):

chasteness; restraint; simpleness; simplicity (lack of ornamentation)

austereness; severeness; severity (extreme plainness)

bareness; starkness (an extreme lack of furnishings or ornamentation)

Derivation:

plain (lacking embellishment or ornamentation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An appearance that is not attractive or beautiful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

homeliness; plainness

Context example:

fine clothes could not conceal the girl's homeliness

Hypernyms ("plainness" is a kind of...):

appearance; visual aspect (outward or visible aspect of a person or thing)

Derivation:

plain (lacking in physical beauty or proportion)

 Context examples 

It is my way—it always was my way, by instinct—ever to meet the brief with brevity, the direct with plainness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I suppose, thought I, judging from the plainness of the servant and carriage, Mrs. Fairfax is not a very dashing person: so much the better; I never lived amongst fine people but once, and I was very miserable with them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was something ascetic in her look, which was augmented by the extreme plainness of a straight-skirted, black, stuff dress, a starched linen collar, hair combed away from the temples, and the nun-like ornament of a string of ebony beads and a crucifix.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)