What's the difference between bland and plain?

Bland


Definition:

  • (a.) Mild; soft; gentle; smooth and soothing in manner; suave; as, a bland temper; bland persuasion; a bland sycophant.
  • (a.) Having soft and soothing qualities; not drastic or irritating; not stimulating; as, a bland oil; a bland diet.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For further education, this would be my priority: a substantial increase in funding and an end to tinkering with the form of qualifications and bland repetition of the “parity of esteem” trope.
  • (2) Reoperation was more frequent after valve replacement with bioprostheses (6.7% per patient year) than after valvuloplasty (4.3% per patient year) and after mechanical valve replacement (1.5% per patient year; P less than 0.02), and was necessitated mainly by residual or recurrent valve dysfunction after valvuloplasty, bland or infected periprosthetic leaks in mechanical valves and degradation of bioprostheses.
  • (3) "Everyone calls him the Socialist Worker Padre," one bland senior cleric told me with a sly and dismissive laugh.
  • (4) ABNORMALITIES OF THE CERVICAL EPITHELIUM ARE SET OUT IN TWO MAIN GROUPS: bland lesions which are regarded as unrelated to malignancy, and malign lesions which are considered as potential precursors of invasive carcinoma.
  • (5) Embolization with avitene, PVA and ethanol induced a more bland histological reaction than the one observed with IBCA.
  • (6) Sir Christopher Bland, the former BBC chairman, told the BBC News channel the allegations were "very serious" but warned against jumping to conclusions about Rippon stepping aside.
  • (7) Among pro-independence people there are widespread concerns that if the SNP moves too quickly on a referendum it will cast the choice in the often bland New Labour-ish terms it uses for everyday politics – and thus deprive Scotland of a crucial opportunity to discuss its future, as well as threatening their chances of winning.
  • (8) But blandness in public should not be mistaken for blandness of character, and there are signs that she is beginning to emerge from the passive role she has been playing.
  • (9) Most examples measure less than or equal to 0.5 cm and are composed of a partially encapsulated mass of bland Schwann cells and innumerable tiny axons arranged in interlacing fascicles.
  • (10) His neutralisation strategy has amounted to little more than bland statements of support and efforts to keep the NHS out of the news.
  • (11) He is a regular panellist on comedy news quizzes, and reaches for Wodehouse in depicting 70s foreign secretary Lord Home "playing Lord Emsworth to Heath's Empress of Blandings".
  • (12) Pathologic examination of the orbital breast metastases revealed two types: an adenocarcinomatous pattern with nests of pleomorphic malignant appearing cells and a histiocytoid variant with bland, large cells similar to histiocytes.
  • (13) Unfortunately, the commercials are so bland and empty that they’re almost certainly doomed to failure.
  • (14) Much of the time he sounds bland, monotonal, bobbing gently along.
  • (15) The frequency of major events during follow-up (thromboembolism, anticoagulant related hemorrhage, bland perivalvular leak and prosthetic valve endocarditis) were similar, but the frequency of primary tissue valve failure was markedly different for the two valves (1.1% per patient-year for Ionescu-Shiley valves and 5.9% for the Hancock valve).
  • (16) A bland vasculopathic process resulting from metabolic or immunologic disturbances appears to be the best explanation for this new syndrome, which has previously been recognized only in Japan.
  • (17) The anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (Bland-White-Garland Syndrome) is a rare congenital malformation reported to occur in 0.25-0.5% of all congenital cardiac anomalies.
  • (18) He recommends not a bland and stimulus-free environment, but one whose elements are unobtrusive and unambiguous.
  • (19) David Bell will be online this afternoon at 4.15pm to answer your points at www.EducationGuardian.co.uk Changing faces of Ofsted Stewart Sutherland 1992-1994 Sutherland was criticised for a slow start and bland inspections.
  • (20) Two deceptively benign-appearing, unclassifiable but very similar fibromyxoid sarcomas characterized histologically by bland, innocuous-appearing fibroblastic cells and a swirling, whorled growth pattern are presented.

Plain


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To lament; to bewail; to complain.
  • (v. t.) To lament; to mourn over; as, to plain a loss.
  • (superl.) Without elevations or depressions; flat; level; smooth; even. See Plane.
  • (superl.) Open; clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
  • (superl.) Not intricate or difficult; evident; manifest; obvious; clear; unmistakable.
  • (superl.) Void of extraneous beauty or ornament; without conspicious embellishment; not rich; simple.
  • (superl.) Not highly cultivated; unsophisticated; free from show or pretension; simple; natural; homely; common.
  • (superl.) Free from affectation or disguise; candid; sincere; artless; honest; frank.
  • (superl.) Not luxurious; not highly seasoned; simple; as, plain food.
  • (superl.) Without beauty; not handsome; homely; as, a plain woman.
  • (superl.) Not variegated, dyed, or figured; as, plain muslin.
  • (superl.) Not much varied by modulations; as, a plain tune.
  • (adv.) In a plain manner; plainly.
  • (a.) Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American plains, or prairies.
  • (a.) A field of battle.
  • (v.) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
  • (v.) To make plain or manifest; to explain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Findings on plain X-ray of the abdomen, using the usual parameters of psoas and kidney shadows in the Nigerian, indicate that the two communities studied are similar but urinary calculi and urinary tract distortion are significantly more prominent in the community with the higher endemicity of urinary schistosomiasis.
  • (2) Plain radiographs should be the initial screening modality for a suspected foreign body.
  • (3) The radiologic findings on conventional examinations (plain films and cholangiograms) in a large group of patients with proven hepatobiliary tuberculosis are reviewed.
  • (4) In a double-blind trial, 50 patients with subcostal incisions performed for cholecystectomy or splenectomy, received 10 ml of either 0.5% bupivacaine plain or physiological saline twice daily by wound perfusion through an indwelling drainage tube for 3 days after operation.
  • (5) In conjunction with the development of a computerized goal-oriented record system at Forest Hospital Des Plaines, Illinois, research staff developed a psychiatric goal list from goal statements most frequently used at the hospital.
  • (6) These patients will generally require a plain roentgenographic examination with subsequent scintography, MRI, CT, laboratory work, and biopsy as indicated by any positive findings during the diagnostic work-up.
  • (7) The ultrasonographic features, the findings of plain abdominal X-ray studies, and of intravenous urography are described.
  • (8) CZP reduced the incidence of convulsions only after the larger dose, but plain solvent (propylene glycol, ethanol, water) was equally effective.
  • (9) Forty-six percent of the plain abdominal radiographs were suspected for cecal volvulus, but only 17 percent were diagnostic.
  • (10) But perhaps the most striking example of how differently much of the world sees London – and the importance of religion – from the way the city plainly sees itself came from the US, where Donald Trump caused uproar with a call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.
  • (11) Shenhua Watermark Coal, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Shenhua Group, is waiting for final approval from Hunt for a $1.2bn open-cut coalmine on the edge of the plains, a little more than three kilometres from Hamparsum’s property.
  • (12) Plain-film chest radiographs subsequently demonstrated mediastinal masses causing extrinsic tracheal compression.
  • (13) Tension pneumocephalus was diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) scan and plain skull X-ray.
  • (14) This time, the syndrome was observed on adult cattle reared in the Accra Plains (Ghana) and infected by S. typhimurium.
  • (15) Plain abdominal radiography demonstrated calcification in three patients and evidence of Thorotrast (thorium dioxide) deposition in one.
  • (16) The absence of a visible fracture on plain skull radiographs does not exclude a fracture, and those patients with clinical signs of a fracture should be treated appropriately and further investigations performed.
  • (17) The success of correction was evaluated on plain radiographs using A P and "false profile" views as well as by CT.
  • (18) (7) Histologically, in the chick, the wall of the truncus and the conus contain cardiac muscle as late as stage 28, but from then on the walls of the truncus are transformed into connective tissue and plain muscle.
  • (19) The tumor was palpable on physical examination, but not apparent on plain radiographs.
  • (20) Trout fishing is excellent in both, and after they fall over the edge of the Piedmont Plateau to the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the lower stretches of both waterways boil into class-2 and -3 whitewater for kayakers and canoeists.