"plain English" meaning in English

See plain English in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} plain English (uncountable)
  1. English that does not use any jargon or technical or scientific terminology; simple or easily comprehensible words or language, usually denoting a form restricted by good sense alone, as contrasted with a codified form via controlled natural language. Tags: uncountable Related terms: plain as day, plainspoken, controlled vocabulary, in layman's terms, straight talk Translations (English that does not use any jargon): 通俗英語 (Chinese Mandarin), 通俗英语 (tōngsú yīngyǔ) (Chinese Mandarin), selkokieli (note: not specifically English) (Finnish), langage clair (note: not specifically English) (French), linguaggio chiaro (note: not specifically English) (Italian), простой английский (prostoj anglijskij) (Russian)
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
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      "expansion": "plain English (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant alt parameters",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant alt parameters",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Italian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I wish these lawyers would give us a plain English summary of their dense legalese.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "English that does not use any jargon or technical or scientific terminology; simple or easily comprehensible words or language, usually denoting a form restricted by good sense alone, as contrasted with a codified form via controlled natural language."
      ],
      "id": "en-plain_English-en-noun-3ezj1csk",
      "links": [
        [
          "English",
          "English"
        ],
        [
          "jargon",
          "jargon"
        ],
        [
          "technical",
          "technical"
        ],
        [
          "scientific",
          "scientific"
        ],
        [
          "terminology",
          "terminology"
        ],
        [
          "simple",
          "simple"
        ],
        [
          "easily",
          "easily"
        ],
        [
          "comprehensible",
          "comprehensible"
        ],
        [
          "word",
          "word"
        ],
        [
          "language",
          "language"
        ],
        [
          "good sense",
          "good sense#English"
        ],
        [
          "codified",
          "codified#English"
        ],
        [
          "controlled natural language",
          "w:controlled natural language"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "plain as day"
        },
        {
          "word": "plainspoken"
        },
        {
          "word": "controlled vocabulary"
        },
        {
          "word": "in layman's terms"
        },
        {
          "word": "straight talk"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "通俗英語"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "tōngsú yīngyǔ",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "通俗英语"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "note": "not specifically English",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "selkokieli"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "note": "not specifically English",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "langage clair"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "note": "not specifically English",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "linguaggio chiaro"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "prostoj anglijskij",
          "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
          "word": "простой английский"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain English"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "plain English (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "plain as day"
    },
    {
      "word": "plainspoken"
    },
    {
      "word": "controlled vocabulary"
    },
    {
      "word": "in layman's terms"
    },
    {
      "word": "straight talk"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English links with redundant alt parameters",
        "English links with redundant wikilinks",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I wish these lawyers would give us a plain English summary of their dense legalese.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "English that does not use any jargon or technical or scientific terminology; simple or easily comprehensible words or language, usually denoting a form restricted by good sense alone, as contrasted with a codified form via controlled natural language."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "English",
          "English"
        ],
        [
          "jargon",
          "jargon"
        ],
        [
          "technical",
          "technical"
        ],
        [
          "scientific",
          "scientific"
        ],
        [
          "terminology",
          "terminology"
        ],
        [
          "simple",
          "simple"
        ],
        [
          "easily",
          "easily"
        ],
        [
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          "comprehensible"
        ],
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          "word"
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          "language"
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          "good sense",
          "good sense#English"
        ],
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          "codified",
          "codified#English"
        ],
        [
          "controlled natural language",
          "w:controlled natural language"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "通俗英語"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "tōngsú yīngyǔ",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "通俗英语"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "note": "not specifically English",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "selkokieli"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "note": "not specifically English",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "langage clair"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "note": "not specifically English",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "linguaggio chiaro"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "prostoj anglijskij",
      "sense": "English that does not use any jargon",
      "word": "простой английский"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain English"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.