simplicity

plural simplicities

1. The state or quality of being simple
   1. countableuncountableThe quality or state of being unmixed or uncompounded

      the simplicity of metals or of earths

   2. countableuncountableThe quality or state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts.

      the simplicity of a machine

      1 more example

      2. Simplicity, with the least number of working parts, all readily visible and accessible.

      1951 July, “British Standard Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, pages 438-439

   3. countableuncountableLack of sharpness of mind; lack of ability to think using complex ideas; stupidity
   4. countableuncountableLack of artificial ornament, pretentious style, or luxury; plainness

      simplicity of diet

      2 more examples

      simplicity of dress, of style, or of language

      simplicity of life

      Synonyms: chastity

   5. countableuncountableLack of subtlety or abstruseness; clarity

      the simplicity of a doctrine

      1 more example

      the simplicity of an explanation or a demonstration

   6. countableuncountableLack of complication; efficiency.

      1 more example

      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

      2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023

2. archaiccountablerareuncountableAn act or instance of foolishness.

   speaking of the great simplicity we commit, in leaving yong children under the government and charge of their fathers and parents.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC