"plain text" meaning in English

See plain text in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav Forms: plaintext [alternative]
Rhymes: -ɛkst Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} plain text (not comparable)
  1. (cryptography, computing) Alternative spelling of plaintext. Tags: alt-of, alternative, not-comparable Alternative form of: plaintext
    Sense id: en-plain_text-en-adj-8XPYAiro Categories (other): Computing, Cryptography, English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 18 33 29 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 21 20 32 27 Topics: computing, cryptography, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav Forms: plaintext [alternative]
Rhymes: -ɛkst Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} plain text (uncountable)
  1. (cryptography) Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext). Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-plain_text-en-noun-YIuS~Tz3 Categories (other): Cryptography, English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 18 33 29 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 21 20 32 27 Topics: computing, cryptography, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
  2. (file format) Human readable text which consists only of a string of characters, represented using a character encoding such as ASCII or Unicode. In the file format sense, plain text may represent structured data in a human readable format such as XML. Tags: uncountable Synonyms (file format): text file
    Sense id: en-plain_text-en-noun-RTjjhFz4 Categories (other): File formats, English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 18 33 29 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 21 20 32 27 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 12 18 42 27 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 16 17 41 26 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 16 18 40 26 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 16 19 39 26 Disambiguation of 'file format': 16 54 30
  3. (computing) Data which consists only of human-readable unformatted text, as opposed to machine-readable binary data or formatted/structured text. In this sense, the character data in between XML tags may be called "plain text". Tags: uncountable Translations (data that consists only of human-readable text): raakateksti (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-plain_text-en-noun-a3ZICKrb Categories (other): Computing, English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 18 33 29 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 21 20 32 27 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences Disambiguation of 'data that consists only of human-readable text': 21 34 45
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: cleartext [cryptography, computing, engineering, mathematics, sciences, physical-sciences, natural-sciences], flat text [computing, engineering, mathematics, sciences, physical-sciences, natural-sciences]

Alternative forms

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "topics": [
        "cryptography",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "ciphertext"
    },
    {
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "rich text"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plaintext",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "plain text (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Cryptography",
          "orig": "en:Cryptography",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 18 33 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 20 32 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English retronyms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Using the sophisticated code was useless since the spy merely stole the plain text from the waste basket.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext)."
      ],
      "id": "en-plain_text-en-noun-YIuS~Tz3",
      "links": [
        [
          "cryptography",
          "cryptography"
        ],
        [
          "encrypted",
          "encrypted"
        ],
        [
          "ciphertext",
          "ciphertext"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(cryptography) Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "cryptography",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "File formats",
          "orig": "en:File formats",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 18 33 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 20 32 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English retronyms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 18 42 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 17 41 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 18 40 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 19 39 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              147,
              157
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1988, Michael M. McDonnell, A simple computer data base system for UNIX:",
          "text": "This simple flat-file database has proven valuable as a way of maintaining and accessing an inventory file and an address file. The data file is a plain text file containing no control characters aside from new lines. The file is therefore easy to create and maintain using ordinary text editors",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Human readable text which consists only of a string of characters, represented using a character encoding such as ASCII or Unicode. In the file format sense, plain text may represent structured data in a human readable format such as XML."
      ],
      "id": "en-plain_text-en-noun-RTjjhFz4",
      "links": [
        [
          "file format",
          "file format"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "file format",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(file format) Human readable text which consists only of a string of characters, represented using a character encoding such as ASCII or Unicode. In the file format sense, plain text may represent structured data in a human readable format such as XML."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "16 54 30",
          "sense": "file format",
          "word": "text file"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 18 33 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 20 32 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English retronyms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Data which consists only of human-readable unformatted text, as opposed to machine-readable binary data or formatted/structured text. In this sense, the character data in between XML tags may be called \"plain text\"."
      ],
      "id": "en-plain_text-en-noun-a3ZICKrb",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Data which consists only of human-readable unformatted text, as opposed to machine-readable binary data or formatted/structured text. In this sense, the character data in between XML tags may be called \"plain text\"."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "21 34 45",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "data that consists only of human-readable text",
          "word": "raakateksti"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav.mp3",
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    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛkst"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "28 35 37",
      "topics": [
        "cryptography",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "cleartext"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "28 35 37",
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "flat text"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain text"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plaintext",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "plain text (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "plaintext"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Cryptography",
          "orig": "en:Cryptography",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 18 33 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 20 32 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English retronyms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative spelling of plaintext."
      ],
      "id": "en-plain_text-en-adj-8XPYAiro",
      "links": [
        [
          "cryptography",
          "cryptography"
        ],
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "plaintext",
          "plaintext#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(cryptography, computing) Alternative spelling of plaintext."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "cryptography",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛkst"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain text"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "topics": [
        "cryptography",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "ciphertext"
    },
    {
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "rich text"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English retronyms",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛkst",
    "Terms with Finnish translations"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plaintext",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "plain text (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Cryptography"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Using the sophisticated code was useless since the spy merely stole the plain text from the waste basket.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cryptography",
          "cryptography"
        ],
        [
          "encrypted",
          "encrypted"
        ],
        [
          "ciphertext",
          "ciphertext"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(cryptography) Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "cryptography",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:File formats"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              147,
              157
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1988, Michael M. McDonnell, A simple computer data base system for UNIX:",
          "text": "This simple flat-file database has proven valuable as a way of maintaining and accessing an inventory file and an address file. The data file is a plain text file containing no control characters aside from new lines. The file is therefore easy to create and maintain using ordinary text editors",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Human readable text which consists only of a string of characters, represented using a character encoding such as ASCII or Unicode. In the file format sense, plain text may represent structured data in a human readable format such as XML."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "file format",
          "file format"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "file format",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(file format) Human readable text which consists only of a string of characters, represented using a character encoding such as ASCII or Unicode. In the file format sense, plain text may represent structured data in a human readable format such as XML."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Data which consists only of human-readable unformatted text, as opposed to machine-readable binary data or formatted/structured text. In this sense, the character data in between XML tags may be called \"plain text\"."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Data which consists only of human-readable unformatted text, as opposed to machine-readable binary data or formatted/structured text. In this sense, the character data in between XML tags may be called \"plain text\"."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav.mp3",
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    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛkst"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "topics": [
        "cryptography",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "cleartext"
    },
    {
      "sense": "file format",
      "word": "text file"
    },
    {
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "natural-sciences"
      ],
      "word": "flat text"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "data that consists only of human-readable text",
      "word": "raakateksti"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain text"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English retronyms",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛkst",
    "Terms with Finnish translations"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plaintext",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "plain text (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "plaintext"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "en:Computing",
        "en:Cryptography"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative spelling of plaintext."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cryptography",
          "cryptography"
        ],
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "plaintext",
          "plaintext#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(cryptography, computing) Alternative spelling of plaintext."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "cryptography",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-plaintext.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_%28NaomiAmethyst%29-plaintext.wav.mp3",
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    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛkst"
    }
  ],
  "word": "plain text"
}

Download raw JSONL data for plain text meaning in English (6.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-07-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-01 using wiktextract (45c4a21 and f1c2b61). 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.