simpleとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmpl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmpəl/
• 韻: -ɪmpəl
• ハイフネーション: sim‧ple

形容詞

simple (comparative simpler または more simple, superlative simplest または most simple)

1. Uncomplicated; lacking complexity; taken by itself, with nothing added.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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?

   • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 253:

     Primitive people, colossally ignorant of the cause of disease and of curative processes, attributed to supernatural agencies any causes and effects for which their simple minds could give no natural explanations.

2. Easy; not difficult.
   • 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.

3. Without ornamentation; plain.
4. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
   • 1605, Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], The Dutch Courtezan. […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for Iohn Hodgets, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.

   • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVI:

     Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?

   • 1838 July 24, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Literary Ethics. An Oration Delivered before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24, 1838”, in J[ames] E[lliot] Cabot, editor, Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Emerson’s Complete Works; I), Riverside edition, London: The Waverley Book Company, published 1883, →OCLC, page 160:

     Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great. The vision of genius comes by renouncing the too officious activity of the understanding, and giving leave and amplest privilege to the spontaneous sentiment.

5. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.

   Antonym: gentle

6. (archaic) Trivial; insignificant.
   • [1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

7. (now colloquial, euphemistic) Feeble-minded; foolish.
8. (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
   1. (chemistry, pharmacology) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
   2. (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
   3. (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
   4. (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, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:

        Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds.

   5. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.

      a simple ascidian

   6. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
9. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

   • 1995 April 24, Improbable Cause (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), season 3, number 20 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

     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!

同意語

• (consisting of a single part または aspect): onefold
• (having few parts または features): basic, plain, uncomplex, uncomplicated
• See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones

反意語

• (having few parts または features): complex, compound, complicated
• (uncomplicated): subtle

派生語

名詞

simple (複数形 simples)

1. (pharmacology) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 37, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.

   • a. 1700, William Temple, “Of Health and Long-life”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. [...], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC, pages 183–184:

     [W]hat Virtue there is in this Remedy lies in the naked Simple it ſelf, as it comes over from the Indies, and in the Choice of that which is leaſt dried, or periſhed by the Voyage.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     The first fellow that picked an herb to cure himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful.

   • 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, […]

2. (obsolete, by extension) A physician.
3. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
4. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels

5. (weaving) A drawloom.
6. (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
7. (Roman Catholicism) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

動詞

simple (三人称単数 現在形 simples, 現在分詞 simpling, 過去形および過去分詞形 simpled)

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.

派生語

• simpler
• simplist
• simplify

アナグラム

• LEMSIP, impels

Latin

形容詞

simple

1. vocative masculine singular of simplus