Word Confusion: Plain versus Plane

Plural for the noun: plains
Gerund: plaining

Third person present verb: plains
Past tense or past participle: plained
Present participle: plaining

Plural for the noun: planes
Gerund: planing

Third person present verb: planes
Past tense or past participle: planed
Present participle: planing

• Simple or ordinary in character
• Without a pattern
  • In only one color
• Bearing no indication as to source, contents, or affiliation
• [Of a person] Having no pretensions
• [Attrib.; of a person] Without a special title or status

Easy to perceive or understand

• Clear
• [Attrib.; of written or spoken usage] Clearly expressed, without the use of technical or abstruse terms
• Not using concealment or deception
  • Frank

[Of a person] Not beautiful or attractive

[Attrib.] Sheer

• [Used for emphasis] Simple

[Of a knitting stitch] Made using a knit rather than a purl stitch

Adverb:
[Informal; submodifier] Clearly ¹

[Used for emphasis] Unequivocally

Noun:
Large area of flat land with few trees ¹

[Knitting; Sewing] A simple stitch in knitting made by putting the right needle into a loop on the left needle, passing the wool round the right needle, and pulling it through the loop, thus forming a new loop

[Billiards; Snooker] The unmarked white ball, as distinguished from the spot balls

• [A.k.a. spot] The player using this ball

[Brewing in Ireland] Short for plain porter, a light porter

Verb, intransitive:
[British dialect or poetic; archaic] To complain ²

• Lament
• Bewail
• Emit a mournful or plaintive sound

Also plain over

Verb, transitive:
To lament ²

• To mourn over
• Emit a mournful or plaintive sound

• Of or relating to only two-dimensional surfaces or magnitudes

Noun:
A surface on which a straight line joining any two points on it would lie flat ¹

• An imaginary flat surface through or joining material objects
• A flat or level surface of a material object
• A flat surface producing lift by the action of air or water over and under it

A level of existence, thought, or development

An airplane ²

Tool consisting of a block with a projecting steel blade used to smooth a wooden or other surface by paring shavings from it ³

[Botany] Platanus of the family Platanaceae, is a tall spreading tree with maple-like leaves and bark that peels in irregular patches ⁴

Verb, intransitive:
[Of a bird or airborne object] Soar without moving the wings ¹

• Glide

[Of a boat, surfboard, etc.] Skimming over the surface of water as a result of lift produced hydrodynamically

[Rare] Travel in an airplane ²

Verb, transitive:
Smooth wood or other material with a plane ³

• Reduce or remove (redundant material) with a plane
• [Archaic] Make smooth or level

Everyone dined at a plain wooden table.

They required a plain fabric for use in their clothing.

Donations can be put in a plain envelope.

He was a plain, honest man with no nonsense about him.

For years he was just plain Bill.

The advantages were plain to see.

Tt was plain that something was very wrong.

I wish these things were written in plain English.

He winced at her plain speaking.

She was a dark-haired, rather plain woman of character.

The main problem is just plain exhaustion.

I can master plain knitting, but nothing fancier.

Adverb:
Well, that was just plain stupid.

Perhaps the youth was just plain stupid.

She’s just plain stubborn.

Helen was just plain tired.

Noun:
The Great Plains became a dust bowl in the United States during the 1930s.

These socks use mostly plain stitch.

No, darlin’, you are supposed to hit the plain ball.

He’s the plain this round.

Two pints of plain, please.

Verb, intransitive:
She plained long and loud.

My mother plains all day long.

Verb, transitive:
“And, plaining, mourn their cruel doom” (Drake, 153).

We plained the loss of benefits.

It’s a plane curve.

It’s ideal as a plane surface.

Noun:
The plane of his forehead was high.

Everything is connected on the spiritual plane.

Let’s take a plane to Aunt Margaret’s this summer.

Use the big plane to shave a few inches off that two-by-four.

The sycamore is a plane tree.

London plane trees make up a large leaf area of and brings many benefits for air quality and shade.

The planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane.

Verb, intransitive:
A bird planed down toward the water below.

The high areas can be planed down.

We’ll drive to Detroit and plane to Los Angeles.

Verb, transitive:
He planed the bottom of the door so it cleared the carpet better.

Plane it smooth.

He used the planer to plane the rough front.

1. From Middle English from the Old French plain, which is from the Latin planus, from a base meaning flat.
2. From Middle English (1250-1300), plei (g) nen from the Old French plaign-, a stem of plaindre, which is from the Latin plangere meaning to beat (the breast, etc.), lament. It is akin to the Greek plḗssein meaning to strike.

1. Early 17th century from the Latin planum meaning flat surface, a neuter of the adjective planus meaning plain. The adjective was suggested by the French plan(e) meaning flat. The word was introduced to differentiate the geometric senses, previously expressed by plain 1, from the latter’s other meanings.
2. Early 20th century, it became a shortened version of airplane.
3. From Middle English from a variant of the obsolete French plaine meaning planing tool, which is from the late Latin plana (in the same sense), from the Latin planare meaning make level, which is from planus meaning plain, level.
4. Late Middle English from the Old French, which is from the Latin platanus, from the Greek platanos, which is from platus meaning broad.