Etimology
From Middle English symple, simple, from Old French and French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc. Partially displaced native English onefold.
adjective
simple (comparative simpler or more simple, superlative simplest or most simple)
Uncomplicated; lacking complexity; taken by itself, with nothing added.
Easy; not difficult.
Without ornamentation; plain.
Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
(archaic) Trivial; insignificant.
(now colloquial, euphemistic) Feeble-minded; foolish.
(heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
(obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
Examples
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?
Primitive people, colossally ignorant of the cause of disease and of curative processes, attributed to supernatural agencies any causes and effects for which their simple minds could give no natural explanations.
There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great. The vision of genius comes by renouncing the too officious activity of the understanding, and giving leave and amplest privilege to the spontaneous sentiment.
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!
Antonym: gentle
‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’‘That was a simple cause,’ said Sir Tristram, ‘for to slay a good knight for to say well by his master.’
‘That was a simple cause,’ said Sir Tristram, ‘for to slay a good knight for to say well by his master.’
Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds.
a simple ascidian
A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.
Related words
synonyms
(consisting of a single part or aspect): onefold
(having few parts or features): basic, plain, uncomplex, uncomplicated
See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "having few parts or features"): complex, compound, complicated
(antonym(s) of "uncomplicated"): subtle
noun
simple (plural simples)
(pharmacology) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
(obsolete, by extension) A physician.
(logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
(obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
(weaving) A drawloom.
(weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
(Roman Catholicism) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
Examples
I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.
[W]hat Virtue there is in this Remedy lies in the naked Simple it ſelf, as it comes over from the Indies, and in the Choice of that which is leaſt dried, or periſhed by the Voyage.
The first fellow that picked an herb to cure himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful.
The venerable carryall, formerly brimming with all manner of esoteric pamphlets and witch's simples, now overflowed with a cascade of soft toys, juice bottles, tissues, linen books for infants, […]
But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels
verb
simple (third-person singular simple present simples, present participle simpling, simple past and past participle simpled)
(transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.