plainly
adv/ˈpleɪnli/
Etymology From Middle English playnly, pleinly, pleyneliche, equivalent to plain + -ly.
1
In a plain manner; simply; basically.
- She decorated the room plainly but neatly.
- 'Tell me plainly what you think of my daughter's little companion.'1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 95:
2
Obviously; clearly.
- You will see that ours is plainly the better method.
- The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
1 more example
- Plainly he was prepared to bark out an interminable succession of charges against the Wanderer.1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 3:
- Synonyms
- expressly, unambiguously, obviously