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simple

  • /ˈsɪm.pəl/ US, UK
  • [ˈsɪm.pɫ̩] US, UK
  • /ˈsəm.pəl/ New Zealand
  • [ˈsɘm.pɫ̩] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɪmpəl

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *sem-

Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-der.

Latin sem-

Proto-Italic *-plosder.

Latin -plus

Latin simplusbor.

Old French simplebor.

Middle English symple

English simple

Inherited from Middle English symple, from Old French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“to fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc. Partially displaced native English onefold.

adjective simpler · more simple · simplest · most simple

  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!
  6. archaic Trivial; insignificant. ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
  7. colloquial, euphemistic Feeble-minded; foolish.
  8. Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
  9. broadly Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial normal subgroups (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient groups).
  10. broadly Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial submodules (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient modules).
  11. broadly 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.
  12. broadly, universal 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.
  13. broadly Being non-isomorphic to the terminal object, and such that its only quotient objects (up to isomorphism) are the terminal object and itself.
  14. 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. Equal to a finite linear combination of indicator functions on measurable sets.
  16. Not compound, but possibly lobed.
  17. 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. 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. Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound. a simple ascidian
  19. Homogenous.
  20. obsolete Mere; not other than; being only. A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

noun simples

  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. broadly, obsolete A physician.
  3. 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.
  4. obsolete Something not mixed or compounded. But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels
  5. A drawloom.
  6. Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
  7. A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

verb simples · simpling · simpled

  1. archaic, intransitive, transitive To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.

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