simple

Less common meanings

5. 5
   not cleveradjectivecolloquialeuphemistic

   Lacking normal intelligence; foolish or feeble-minded.

   The villagers unkindly called him simple and laughed at his mistakes.

   She was too simple to notice she was being cheated.

   UsageOften a bit simple or simple-minded; it sounds unkind when said of a real person.

   Similarfoolish, dumb, silly, idiotic, daft

   Oppositeastute, clever

6. 6
   ordinary rankadjective

   Of ordinary social standing; of no special rank.

   He was a simple tradesman, unknown beyond his village.

   The simple folk of the region rarely met anyone from the court.

   Similarcommon, ordinary, lowborn

   Oppositeeminent, notable, highborn, wellborn

   Note

   A modest label that sits before a trade or station: a simple tailor, a simple farmer, someone claiming to matter to no one. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1995), Garak calls himself "a simple tailor," and Odo throws the phrase back at him. The exchange shows how easily the label works as a disguise. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The exchange occurs in a 1995 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, specifically “Improbable Cause.” en.wikipedia.org
   • Garak describes himself as “a simple tailor,” and Odo repeats the phrase back to him. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   adjectivearchaic

   Trivial or insignificant; of little importance or weight.

   ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’

   1470, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum LV”

   Similartrivial, insignificant, minor, negligible, petty

   Oppositesignificant, important

   Note

   A judgment of weight rather than of structure, now archaic. Malory's Tristram calls killing a good knight for praising his master "a symple cause," meaning a poor, unworthy reason. When you meet the word in older texts, read it as inconsequential, not easy. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Malory's Sir Tristram uses the exact phrase “a symple cause.” en.wiktionary.org
   • Tristram condemns killing a good knight for speaking well of his master; the context supports interpreting simple as an insignificant or unworthy reason. en.wikisource.org
8. 8
   single partadjective

   Consisting of a single part, element, layer, or substance; not compound, divided, branched, or mixed, as in a simple leaf, stem, lens, or epithelium, or an organism living as a single individual.

   Early chemists tried to reduce every material to its simple components.

   A simple substance cannot be broken down into other substances by chemical means.

   Similarelementary, single

   Oppositecompound, complex, composite

   Note

   Chemistry and pharmacology use it as the opposite of compound: a simple substance is one thing only, not several combined. In older chemistry this came close to what is now called an element. The same idea gives the noun for a single-plant remedy. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • In chemistry and pharmacology, simple means consisting of one substance, uncompounded. en.wiktionary.org
   • Older chemistry associated simple substances with elements. dev.gutenberg.org
   • The noun simple applies the idea of an uncompounded substance to a remedy from one plant. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbarchaictransitive or intransitive

   To gather simples (that is, medicinal herbs) from the wild.

   Note

   An archaic verb built from the herbal noun: to simple is to go out gathering herbs. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Simple is an archaic verb meaning to gather medicinal herbs. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    nounobsolete

    A substance or thing that is not mixed or compounded with anything else.

    But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels

    c. 1598, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”

    Note

    Shakespeare gives this obsolete noun its most memorable line in As You Like It: a melancholy "compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects." The image comes from the apothecary's single-plant remedy, stretched to cover any unmixed ingredient. Modern writers who use it are usually echoing that line. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Shakespeare's As You Like It contains the quoted words, spoken by Jaques in Act IV, scene i. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
    • The noun meaning something unmixed or uncompounded is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • The image figuratively extends medicinal herbs or preparations to ingredients. upload.wikimedia.org
    • A medicinal simple is a preparation made from one plant. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nounobsolete

    A physician; a person who practices medicine.

    Note

    An obsolete extension by association: the person who dispensed single-plant remedies came to be named after them. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Simple has an obsolete physician sense described as an extension of the medicinal sense. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    noundated

    An herbal preparation made from a single plant rather than from several.

    I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.

    1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes
13. 13
    nounrare

    An atomic proposition; a statement that contains no smaller statements within it.

    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.

    2021, Michael David Stevens, 10:41 from the start
14. 14
    adjective

    In algebra, of a group, ring, module, Lie algebra, or other algebraic structure or object: non-trivial and having no proper non-trivial quotients. Equivalently, it has no proper non-trivial normal subgroups, ideals, submodules, or congruences.
15. 15
    adjective

    Of a steam engine: using steam only once in its cylinders, unlike a compound engine that reuses it at high and low pressure.
16. 16
    adjective

    Of a function, formed by adding together finitely many indicator functions of measurable sets, each multiplied by a constant.
17. 17
    noun

    In the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, a feast ranked below a double or a semidouble.
18. 18
    noun

    A drawloom; a loom used for weaving figured or patterned fabrics.
19. 19
    noun

    A part of the drawloom apparatus used to raise the heddles that lift the warp threads.