Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The property, condition, or quality of being simple or uncombined.
- n. Absence of luxury or showiness; plainness.
- n. Absence of affectation or pretense.
- n. Lack of sophistication or subtlety; naiveté.
- n. Lack of good sense or intelligence; foolishness.
- n. Clarity of expression.
- n. Austerity in embellishment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or property of being simple The state or mode of being uncompounded; existence in elementary form.
- n. Freedom from complexity or intricacy.
- n. Freedom from difficulty of execution or understanding; easiness; especially, lack of abstruseness; clearness; also, an instance or illustration of simple clearness.
- n. Freedom from artificial ornament; plainness, as of dress, style, or the like.
- n. Artlessness of mind or conduct; unaffectedness; sincerity; absence of parade or pretense.
- n. Ignorance arising from lack either of education or of intelligence; especially, lack of common sense; foolishness; childishness; also, an act of folly; a foolish mistake.
- n. Synonyms See simple.
Wiktionary
- n. The quality or state of being simple, unmixed, or uncompounded; as, the simplicity of metals or of earths.
- n. The quality or state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts; as, the simplicity of a machine.
- n. Artlessness of mind; freedom from cunning or duplicity; lack of acuteness and sagacity.
- n. Freedom from artificial ornament, pretentious style, or luxury; plainness; as, simplicity of dress, of style, or of language; simplicity of diet; simplicity of life.
- n. Freedom from subtlety or abstruseness; clearness; as, the simplicity of a doctrine; the simplicity of an explanation or a demonstration.
- n. Weakness of intellect; silliness; folly.
- n. rare An act or instance of foolishness.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality or state of being simple, unmixed, or uncompounded.
- n. The quality or state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts.
- n. Artlessness of mind; freedom from cunning or duplicity; lack of acuteness and sagacity.
- n. Freedom from artificial ornament, pretentious style, or luxury; plainness.
- n. Freedom from subtlety or abstruseness; clearness.
- n. Weakness of intellect; silliness; folly.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the quality of being simple or uncompounded
- n. a lack of penetration or subtlety
- n. absence of affectation or pretense
- n. lack of ornamentation
- n. freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
Etymologies
- From Old French simplicite, from Latin simplicitas, from simplex ("simple"); see simple. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English simplicite, from Old French, from Latin simplicitās, from simplex, simplic-, simple; see sem-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term simplicity has two significations in English.”
“Dandy was now upon what they call the simplicity dodge; that is to say, he affected that character of wisdom for which certain individuals, whose knowledge of life no earthly experience ever can improve, are so extremely anxious to get credit.”
The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One
“To remedy this inconvenience, he concludes this spiritual substance much more noble than matter; that its prodigious subtilty, which he calls simplicity, but which is only the effect of metaphysical abstraction, secures it from decomposition, from dissolution, from all those revolutions, to which material bodies, as produced by nature, are evidently exposed.”
“The head of the same committee in the House, Rep. Bill Deeken, R-Jefferson City, said he likes the idea in principle and would be willing to have the bill heard, something Nodler said he expects because of what he called the simplicity of the legislation.”
“A part of the issue may be that the word "simplicity" is that element which is quite often focused upon and in a rather narrow sense at that.”
“And you're right; this kind of simplicity is not only delicious, but also healthy.”
“The term simplicity has two significations in English. ””
“If simplicity is the goal I would recommend the single non-transferable vote (SNTV), which is probably the simplest PR-like system there is.”
Matthew Yglesias » Diverse Representation Without Gerrymandering
“Driving an SUV everyday as opposed to a single jet flight can only be argued in the sense of breakdown of the actions, merely equating them for the sake of simplicity is logically useless.”
“Yet have I talked in simplicity and straightness, as a man may well talk who has lived life from the ships of Tostig Lodbrog and the roof of Brunanbuhr across the world to Jerusalem and back again.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘simplicity’.
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Clear and simple as the truth
Classic style
Focused, assured, virtues, clarity, simplicity, sense, vises, declines, acknowledge, ambiguities, Tacit, concept and 13 more...
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Transcendentalism (Thoreau)
A list of words from our Thoreau readings.
simplicity, Aurora, vigor, Memnon, somnolence, servitor, simplify, supernumerary, sentinel, rudiment, Veda, Saint Vitus and 43 more...
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Words to live by
and my mantras
faith, God, Buddha, Muhammad, laughter, simplicity, hope, gratitude, Jesus, science, theology, agnosticism and 16 more...
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intueri's Words
inveigle, dolorous, archly, feckless, resplendent, concatenation, peripatetic, delightful, cookie, fey, ephemeral, effervescent and 347 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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lavendargrrl's Words
surfeit, radiant, sussuration, sustenance, authenticity, aching, solitude, solicitous, limerance, compersion, philanthropy, mystery and 108 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
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The Last Werewolf
This novel by Glen Duncan, aside from being a ripping yarn and beautifully written, is just littered with words that I had to look up and discover that often his use of the word not only fitted per...
gurns, bok, chimney breast, dichotomy, Platonic form, filthy, Platonic Form, mathematics, BAM, skirls, clarity, blundering and 298 more...
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dyy's Words
ambivalence, irony, double-edged sword, paradox, struggle, plunge, buoy, pigeon-hole, ultimately, status quo, fuel, undermine and 230 more...
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whitmanian
from the poetry and prose of walt whitman
celebrate, assume, loafe, grass, summer, distillation, atmosphere, undisguised, naked, mad, breath, loveroot and 291 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for simplicity.

Louises The hunger, in its vicious simplicity, teaches you how to be a werewolf. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Apr 1, 2012
brtom The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman, Preface 1855 Dec 9, 2006
mandarine To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau Dec 8, 2006