Word Confusion: Simple versus Simplistic

Plural for the noun: simples

• Presenting no difficulty
• [Attrib.] Used to emphasize the fundamental and straightforward nature of something
• Occurring or considered alone
• Mere
• Bare

Plain, basic, or uncomplicated in form, nature, or design

• Without much decoration or ornamentation
• Humble and unpretentious
• Not ornate or luxurious
• Unadorned
• Not grand or sophisticated
• Unpretentious

Composed of a single element

• Not compound
• [Mathematics] Denoting a group that has no proper normal subgroup
• [Botany; of a leaf or stem] Not divided or branched
• [Botany] Formed from only one ovary
• [Of a lens, microscope, etc.] Consisting of a single lens or component
• [In English grammar] Denoting a tense formed without an auxiliary
• [Of interest] Payable on the sum loaned only

[Dated or offensive] Having an intellectual disability

Unsophisticated

• Naive
• Credulous

Inconsequential or rudimentary

Unlearned

• Ignorant

[Zoology] Not compound

[Music] Uncompounded or without overtones

• Single

[Grammar] Having only the head without modifying elements included

Free of deceit or guile

• Sincere
• Unconditional

Common or ordinary

Not mixed

Ordinary or straightforward

Exclamation:
[British; informal] Used to convey that something is very straightforward

Noun:
[Mainly historical] A medicinal herb, or a medicine made from one plant

[Obsolete] A physician

[Logic] A simple or atomic proposition

An ignorant, foolish, or gullible person

Something simple, unmixed, or uncompounded

[Textiles; simples] Cords for controlling the warp threads in forming the shed on draw-looms

A person of humble origins

• Commoner

[Roman Catholicism] A feast which is not a double or a semidouble

Camcorders are now so simple to operate.

It’s the simple truth.

The simple fact is that you’re a liar.

A simple yes or no will suffice.

She wore a simple white blouse.

The house is furnished in a simple country style.

It was a simple way of life.

He was a quiet, unassuming man with simple tastes.

An element made up of only one type of atom is simple.

“A finite group is characteristically simple if and only if it is the direct product of isomorphic simple groups” (Characteristically).

Maples, oaks, banana, guava, mango, black cherry, black gum, and sweet gum have simple leaves.

Peaches and plums are simple fruits.

The hand lens and reading lens are considered simple lenses.

Simple present and simple past is the most basic tense in English and uses the base form of the verb, e.g., he sings (he sang), they play (they played).

Simple interest is what banks pay to customers with savings accounts.

“Ascidian embryos are used as a model system in developmental biology due to their unique properties, including their invariant cell division patterns, being comprised of a small number of cells and tissues, the feasibility of their experimental manipulation, and their simple and compact genome” (Satou).

A simple tone, a.k.a. pure tone, has a single pitch such as a flute note.

Don’t mind him, he’s simple.

He was as simple as a child.

The simple subject of “The dappled pony gazed over the fence” is pony.

I want a frank, simple answer.

He was a simple soldier.

She had a simple, direct way of thinking.

Applesauce is a simple creation.

It was a simple case of mumps.

Exclamation:
So if you don’t like the store, don’t shop there! Simples!

Noun:
They were the gatherers of simples.

“I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying” (Montaigne, chapt 37).

“But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels” (Shakespeare).

The simple will know what to do.

A simple proposition is translated as, what we now call, a variable” (MacWhinney).

I was mocked as a simple when I sang of birds and bees and flowers like a child.

She has installed the simples and draw handles for all fifty pattern shafts.

“The Matins of Simple Feasts and lower ranking have only one Nocturn, the nine Psalms being said consecutively” (Rankings).

“As Mrs. Kean points out in her first three chapters — which provide adequate, if occasionally simplistic, historical background — precedents for such largesse had long existed in czarist Russia” (Robinson).

“The simplistic headlines of the press can be very misleading.” – Matt Ridley

“Choosing wars as demarcations of cultural time segments may seem simplistic, but there is little question that a new sensibility made its appearance in the United States after World War II.” – Naomi Rosenblum

His interpretation of the theory was too simplistic.

“In its most simplistic form, the case begs the question: What rights do the homeless have?” (Sacramento).