different between simple vs trivial
simple
English
Etymology
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”) + plic? (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc.
Partially displaced native English onefold.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?s?mp?l/
- Rhymes: -?mp?l
- Hyphenation: sim?ple
Adjective
simple (comparative simpler or more simple, superlative simplest or most simple)
- Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
- 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press ?ISBN, page 167,
- There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
- 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press ?ISBN, page 167,
- Without ornamentation; plain.
- Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
- 1605, John Marston, The Dutch Courtesan
- Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
- 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Literary Ethics - an Oration delivered before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24, 1838
- To be simple is to be great.
- 1605, John Marston, The Dutch Courtesan
- Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
- Antonym: gentle
- (now rare) Trivial; insignificant.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
- ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
- (now colloquial) Feeble-minded; foolish.
- (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
- (chemistry, pharmacology) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
- (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
- (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
- (of a steam engine) 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.
- 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:
- 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:
- (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
- (mineralogy) Homogenous.
- (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
Synonyms
- (consisting of a single part or aspect): onefold
- (having few parts or features): plain
- See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones
Antonyms
- (having few parts or features): complex, compound, complicated
- (uncomplicated): subtle
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
simple (plural simples)
- (pharmacology) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
- 2003, Dolores Stewart Riccio, Charmed Circle, Kensington Books (?ISBN), page 12:
- 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, […]
- 2003, Dolores Stewart Riccio, Charmed Circle, Kensington Books (?ISBN), page 12:
- (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.
Translations
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.
Derived terms
- simpler
- simplist
- simplify
Anagrams
- LEMSIP, impels
Asturian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin simplex.
Adjective
simple (epicene, plural simples)
- simple (uncomplicated)
Synonyms
- cenciellu
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin simplex.
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Central) IPA(key): /?sim.pl?/
- (Valencian) IPA(key): /?sim.ple/
Adjective
simple (masculine and feminine plural simples)
- simple (uncomplicated)
- Synonym: senzill
- single (not divided into parts)
Derived terms
- fulla simple (“simple leaf”)
- simplement (“simply”)
Related terms
- símplex (“simplex”)
- simplicitat (“simplicity”)
- ximple
Further reading
- “simple” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “simple” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
- “simple” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Chavacano
Etymology
From Spanish simple (“simple”).
Adjective
simple
- simple
Esperanto
Etymology
From simpla +? -e.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?simple/
- Hyphenation: sim?ple
Adverb
simple
- simply
French
Etymology
From Old French, borrowed from Latin simplex.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /s??pl/
Adjective
simple (plural simples)
- single (multiplier)
- simple
- one-way
- mere
Usage notes
The second and third meanings are taken when the adjective is placed after the noun. The fourth meaning is taken when it is located before the noun.
Derived terms
Descendants
- ? Romanian: simplu
Noun
simple m (plural simples)
- one-way ticket
- (baseball) single
Related terms
Further reading
- “simple” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams
- emplis
Galician
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin simplex. Displaced Old Portuguese simplez.
Adjective
simple m or f (plural simples)
- simple
German
Adjective
simple
- inflection of simpel:
- strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
- strong nominative/accusative plural
- weak nominative all-gender singular
- weak accusative feminine/neuter singular
Latin
Adjective
simple
- vocative masculine singular of simplus
Middle English
Adjective
simple
- Alternative form of symple
Noun
simple
- Alternative form of symple
Norwegian Bokmål
Adjective
simple
- definite singular of simpel
- plural of simpel
Norwegian Nynorsk
Adjective
simple
- definite singular of simpel
- plural of simpel
Old French
Alternative forms
- sinple
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin simplex.
Adjective
simple m (oblique and nominative feminine singular simple)
- innocent
- mere; simple
- honest; without pretense
- peasant, pauper (attributive)
Descendants
- French: simple
- ? Romanian: simplu
- ? Middle English: symple, simple
- Scots: semple
- English: simple
Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [?sim.ple]
Adjective
simple
- feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of simplu
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin simplex.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?simple/, [?s?m.ple]
Adjective
simple (plural simples)
- simple (uncomplicated)
- Synonym: sencillo
- Antonym: complejo
- (before the noun) mere, ordinary
- Synonym: mero
- simple, single (not divided into parts)
- Antonym: compuesto
- simple-minded, stupid
- insipid, flavorless
- Synonym: soso
- (grammar) simple
Usage notes
A way to think of the difference between simple and sencillo, which both mean "simple" in English, is that the antonym of simple is complejo (“complex”), whereas the antonym of sencillo is complicado (“complicated”).
Derived terms
Descendants
- Chavacano: simple
Noun
simple m or f (plural simples)
- simpleton, fool
- (pharmacology, masculine only) simple
See also
- más simple que el mecanismo de un botijo
Further reading
- “simple” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
Swedish
Adjective
simple
- absolute definite natural masculine form of simpel.
Anagrams
- simpel
Tagalog
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish simple.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?simpl?/
Adjective
símple
- simple; plain
- Synonyms: payak, yano, liso
simple From the web:
- what simple sugar is broken down in the mitochondria
- what simple sugar is produced
- what simple machine is a doorknob
- what simple machine is a seesaw
- what simple machine is a screwdriver
- what simple machine is a hammer
- what simple machine is a shovel
- what simple machine is a wheelbarrow
trivial
English
Alternative forms
- triviall (obsolete)
Etymology
- From Latin trivi?lis (“appropriate to the street-corner, commonplace, vulgar”), from trivium (“place where three roads meet”). Compare trivium, trivia.
- From the distinction between trivium (“the lower division of the liberal arts; grammar, logic and rhetoric”) and quadrivium (“the higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?t??.vi.?l/
Adjective
trivial (comparative more trivial, superlative most trivial)
- Ignorable; of little significance or value.
- 1848, Thackeray, William Makepeace, Vanity Fair, Bantam Classics (1997), 16:
- "All which details, I have no doubt, Jones, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental."
- 1848, Thackeray, William Makepeace, Vanity Fair, Bantam Classics (1997), 16:
- Commonplace, ordinary.
- 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine)
- As a scholar, meantime, he was trivial, and incapable of labour.
- 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine)
- Concerned with or involving trivia.
- (taxonomy) Relating to or designating the name of a species; specific as opposed to generic.
- (mathematics) Of, relating to, or being the simplest possible case.
- (mathematics) Self-evident.
- Pertaining to the trivium.
- (philosophy) Indistinguishable in case of truth or falsity.
Synonyms
- (of little significance): ignorable, negligible, trifling
Antonyms
- nontrivial
- important
- significant
- radical
- fundamental
Derived terms
- trivia
Translations
Noun
trivial (plural trivials)
- (obsolete) Any of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.
- c. 1521, John Skelton, “Speke Parott”:
- Tryuyals, & quatryuyals, ?o ?ore now they appayre
That Parrot the Popagay, hath pytye to beholde
How the re?t of good lernyng, is roufled vp & trold
- Tryuyals, & quatryuyals, ?o ?ore now they appayre
- c. 1521, John Skelton, “Speke Parott”:
References
trivial in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Anagrams
- vitrail
Catalan
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Valencian) IPA(key): /t?i.vi?al/
- (Central) IPA(key): /t?i.bi?al/
Adjective
trivial (masculine and feminine plural trivials)
- trivial
Further reading
- “trivial” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t?i.vjal/
- Homophones: triviale, triviales
Adjective
trivial (feminine singular triviale, masculine plural triviaux, feminine plural triviales)
- trivial (common, easy, obvious)
- ordinary, mundane
- colloquial (language)
Derived terms
- nom trivial
Further reading
- “trivial” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams
- livrait, vitrail
Galician
Adjective
trivial m or f (plural triviais)
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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Derived terms
- trivialidade
- trivialmente
German
Etymology
Borrowed from French trivial, from Latin trivi?lis (“common”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t?ivi?a?l/
- Rhymes: -a?l
Adjective
trivial (comparative trivialer, superlative am trivialsten)
- trivial (common, easy, obvious)
Declension
Related terms
- trivialisieren
- Trivialität
Further reading
- “trivial” in Duden online
Piedmontese
Adjective
trivial
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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Portuguese
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /t?ivi?aw/
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /t?i?vja?/
Adjective
trivial m or f (plural triviais, comparable)
- trivial
Derived terms
- trivialidade
- trivializar
- trivialmente
Further reading
- “trivial” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
Romanian
Etymology
From French trivial.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tri.vi?al/
Adjective
trivial m or n (feminine singular trivial?, masculine plural triviali, feminine and neuter plural triviale)
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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.
Declension
Derived terms
- trivialitate
- trivializa
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t?i?bjal/, [t??i???jal]
- Hyphenation: tri?vial
Adjective
trivial (plural triviales)
- trivial
Derived terms
- trivialidad
- trivializar
- trivialmente
Further reading
- “trivial” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
trivial From the web:
- what trivial means
- what trivial pursuit
- what trivial pursuit edition is best
- what trivial means in spanish
- trivialise meaning
- what trivial solution
- trivia question
- what trivial pursuit mean
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