simplified

1. 1
   adjective

   Made less complex, usually by removing details or steps.

   Like a road map that shows only the main highways and skips the side streets.

   The textbook offers a simplified account of how the engine works.

   Her simplified budget left out every minor expense.

   Similarstreamlined, condensed

   Oppositecomplicated, detailed

   Note

   A participle that has settled into a full adjective, and it grades like one: a more simplified version, the most simplified form. It sits naturally before a noun, as in a simplified timetable or a simplified account, and it implies an earlier, fuller version that has been cut down. After be it can blur into the past form of simplify: "the rules were simplified" may describe either a state or an action.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of simplify.

   Engineers simplified the design after the first prototype failed.

   The committee simplified the membership rules last year.

   Note

   The past form serves both uses of simplify. Used transitively, it takes an object (they simplified the rules) and forms the passive (the rules were simplified). Used intransitively, it stands alone for something that grew simpler by itself. Perfect tenses use have either way. The final -y of simplify changes to -i- before -ed, as it does in simplifies.

   Over the years the procedure simplified until anyone could follow it.

   The language has simplified considerably since then.

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to the reduced-stroke set of Chinese characters used in mainland China and several other regions.

   The mainland edition uses simplified Chinese throughout.

   Many learners start with simplified characters rather than the traditional ones.

   Oppositetraditional

   Note

   Here the word labels a script and makes no judgment about difficulty. A simplified character is written with fewer strokes, and its partner term is traditional. One character's traditional form can carry twice as many strokes as its simplified one. When writing about Chinese, pair the terms consistently (simplified form, traditional form), because "simplified" on its own can read as the everyday "made less complex" sense.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialuncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of simplified Chinese.

   The website defaults to simplified for mainland users.

   He set his phone to display simplified instead of traditional.

   Note

   Once the script is understood from context, the adjective drops its noun and stands alone: set the phone to simplified. It is uncountable, takes no article, and belongs to casual talk about websites, phones and settings. The full name refers to the character forms the People's Republic of China introduced as script reform. In careful writing, simplified Chinese is the safer choice.

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