Sekirov Dictionary

simple

/ˈsɪm.pəl/

adjective 22
noun 7
verb 1
forms 7
phrases 2

adjective22

•
not complicated, and made of few parts with nothing extra added
- 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? — 1910
Structurally uncomplicated.
Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
Not compound, but possibly lobed.
Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
Homogenous.
•
Easy; not difficult.
- There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be. — 2001
Without ornamentation; plain.
•
Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
- 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! — 1995
•
Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
- Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them. — 1605
(informal, euphemistic) Feeble-minded; foolish.
Being non-trivial, and admitting no proper non-trivial quotients.
Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial normal subgroups (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient groups).
Being non-trivial, and having no proper non-trivial submodules (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient modules).
Being non-zero, and having no proper non-zero two-sided ideals (equivalently, no proper non-trivial quotient rings). For commutative rings, this definition coincides with that of a field.
Containing more than one element, and such that the only congruences on the structure are the diagonal relation (the equivalence relation a≡b⟺a=b) and the universal relation (the equivalence relation such that a≡b for all a,b). Equivalently, containing more than one element and having no proper non-trivial quotient algebras.
Being non-isomorphic to the terminal object, and such that its only quotient objects (up to isomorphism) are the terminal object and itself.
Being non-abelian and having no proper non-zero ideals. (Note that this is non-equivalent to the usual algebra sense; in particular, the abelian Lie algebra of dimension 1 over any given field is non-trivial and has no proper non-zero ideals, but is by convention not considered simple.)
Equal to a finite linear combination of indicator functions on measurable sets.
•
Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.
- Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds. — 1959
•
(no longer used) Trivial; insignificant.
- ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’ — 1889
•
(no longer used) Mere; not other than; being only.
- A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin. — 1604

noun7

•
A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
- Dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind. — 1597
•
A simple or atomic proposition.
- 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
A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
A drawloom.
Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
•
(no longer used) Something not mixed or compounded.
- But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels — 1598
(no longer used) A physician.

verb1

(no longer used) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.

forms

simpled · simpling · simples · more simple · simpler · most simple · simplest

Phrases with simple

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