What's the difference between simple and subtle?

Simple


Definition:

  • (a.) Single; not complex; not infolded or entangled; uncombined; not compounded; not blended with something else; not complicated; as, a simple substance; a simple idea; a simple sound; a simple machine; a simple problem; simple tasks.
  • (a.) Plain; unadorned; as, simple dress.
  • (a.) Mere; not other than; being only.
  • (a.) Not given to artifice, stratagem, or duplicity; undesigning; sincere; true.
  • (a.) Artless in manner; unaffected; unconstrained; natural; inartificial;; straightforward.
  • (a.) Direct; clear; intelligible; not abstruse or enigmatical; as, a simple statement; simple language.
  • (a.) Weak in intellect; not wise or sagacious; of but moderate understanding or attainments; hence, foolish; silly.
  • (a.) Not luxurious; without much variety; plain; as, a simple diet; a simple way of living.
  • (a.) Humble; lowly; undistinguished.
  • (a.) Without subdivisions; entire; as, a simple stem; a simple leaf.
  • (a.) Not capable of being decomposed into anything more simple or ultimate by any means at present known; elementary; thus, atoms are regarded as simple bodies. Cf. Ultimate, a.
  • (a.) Homogenous.
  • (a.) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; as, a simple ascidian; -- opposed to compound.
  • (a.) Something not mixed or compounded.
  • (a.) A medicinal plant; -- so called because each vegetable was supposed to possess its particular virtue, and therefore to constitute a simple remedy.
  • (a.) A drawloom.
  • (a.) A part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
  • (a.) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
  • (v. i.) To gather simples, or medicinal plants.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The accumulation of lipids and enzymes such as simple estarase, lipase, beta-HDH, alpha-GDH and NADPH-reductase in those areas, suggests that lipids are not a simple excretory product.
  • (2) The effects of sessions, individual characteristics, group behavior, sedative medications, and pharmacological anticipation, on simple visual and auditory reaction time were evaluated with a randomized block design.
  • (3) A new and simple method of serotyping campylobacters has been developed which utilises co-agglutination to detect the presence of heat-stable antigens.
  • (4) The results of the evaluation confirm that most problems seen by first level medical personnel in developing countries are simple, repetitive, and treatable at home or by a paramedical worker with a few safe, essential drugs, thus avoiding unnecessary visits to a doctor.
  • (5) Blatter requires a two-thirds majority of the 209 voters to triumph in the opening round, with a simple majority required if it goes to a second round.
  • (6) Each profile is described by a simple sequence of band transitions (BT-sequence).
  • (7) A simple method for ultrarapid freezing of cell cultures in monolayers was developed.
  • (8) A simple method of selective catheterization of the superficial femoral artery (SFA) following antegrade puncture of the common femoral artery is described.
  • (9) Although the relative contributions of different fuels varies greatly in different organisms, in none is there a simple reliance on stored ATP.
  • (10) Even if it were not the case that police use a variety of tricks to keep recorded crime figures low, this data would still represent an almost meaningless measure of the extent of crime in society, for the simple reason that a huge proportion of crimes (of almost all sorts) have always gone unreported.
  • (11) The method of sonicating L3 and Mf fragment antigens used in this study is simple, and its results are easy to observe.
  • (12) Simple cells that are nearly equally dominated by each eye always exhibit strong phase-specific interaction.
  • (13) More evil than Clocky , the alarm clock that rolls away when you reach out to silence it, or the Puzzle Alarm , which makes you complete a simple puzzle before it'll go quiet, the Money Shredding Alarm Clock methodically destroys your cash unless you rouse yourself.
  • (14) When cultures were pulse labeled for 15 min and then incubated under chase conditions for 105 min, the amount of degraded collagen attained a value equal to approximately 20% of the amount synthesized during the labeling period; the data were fit with a simple exponential function that had a 40-min rise time and a 12-min lag time.
  • (15) Treatment was monitored by simple measurements, and it's toxicity proved to be scanty.
  • (16) The presence of a previously unreported dipeptide transport mechanism within blood leukocytes and the selective enrichment of the granule enzyme, DPPI, within cytotoxic effector cells of lymphoid or myeloid lineage appear to afford a unique mechanism for the targeting of immunotherapeutic reagents composed of simple dipeptide esters or amides.
  • (17) The design of a simple dynamic knee simulator is described.
  • (18) Simple interconversion cannot account for the changes in binding that occur upon adding GMP-PNP or removing magnesium, since the increase in [R2]t exceeds the decrease in [R1]t. Moreover, the apparent amount of high-affinity complex exhibits a biphasic dependence on the concentration of [3H]histamine; an increase at low concentrations is offset by a decrease that occurs at higher concentrations.
  • (19) A rapid and simple method has been developed for the nondestructive distinction between aflatoxin B1 and the feed antioxidant, ethoxyquin.
  • (20) The stimuli were two simple tones in experiment 1 and two tonal complexes in both experiments 2 and 3.

Subtle


Definition:

  • (superl.) Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe.
  • (superl.) Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.
  • (superl.) Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.
  • (superl.) Smooth and deceptive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As a group, the three mammalian proteins resemble bovine serum conglutinin and behave as lectins with rather broad sugar specificities directed at certain non-reducing terminal N-acetylglucosamine, mannose, glucose and fucose residues, but with subtle differences in fine specificities.
  • (2) But it will be a subtle difference, because it's already abundantly clear there's no danger of the war being suddenly forgotten, or made to seem irrelevant to our sense of what Europe and the world has to avoid repeating.
  • (3) Communicating sustainability is a subtle attempt at doing good Read more And yet, in environmental terms it is infinitely preferable to prevent waste altogether, rather than recycle it.
  • (4) If, indeed, there is an immunologic basis for pre-eclampsia, it is more subtle than the methodology used in this study is capable of detecting.
  • (5) Subtle differences between Chicago urban and Grand Forks rural climates are reflected in arthritic subjects' degree of pain and their perception of pain-related stress.
  • (6) Critical in this understanding are the subtle changes that occur in the individual patient, reflecting the natural history of the disease or response to its treatment.
  • (7) Subtle cognitive deficits in Inferential Reading Comprehension were detected when Reading Vocabulary was at or better than a twelfth grade level.
  • (8) This histochemical difference corresponded to more subtle differences in Nissl and myelin staining patterns, and suggests further structural subdivisions of potential functional significance.
  • (9) Thus, luciferase transcriptional fusions can detect subtle variations in initial rates of gene expression in a real-time, nondestructive assay.
  • (10) The binding of [3H]PAF to washed human platelets indicated subtle changes between Days 2 and 4, which became more noticeable by Day 6.
  • (11) In this study the temperature dependence of the reactivity of aldolase SH groups is investigated in order to detect subtle changes in the enzyme conformation.
  • (12) The crucial issue of whether subtle behavioral, intellectual, and developmental impairment occurs in young children, as a result of lead-induced CNS damage is discussed in detail.
  • (13) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (14) It is believed that by looking at such subtle shape differences an understanding of what it means morphologically for a primate to be either more or less arboreal may be achieved.
  • (15) The current magnetic resonance imaging system with computerized image processing is a sensitive and simple method for evaluation of subtle parenchymal changes of the brain.
  • (16) Fundus examination disclosed a subtle cherry red spot bilaterally.
  • (17) Ependymal cells developed luminal fronds that projected into the ventricle and the subpial glia displayed a very subtle gliosis in the form of thin multi-laminated processes.
  • (18) The rapidity of obtaining the results (within one hour), the complete absence of untoward reactions to the radiopharmaceuticals, the much lower frequency of subtle or indeterminate results, the ability to render useful information in the presence of moderate jaundice and the lack of interference from overlying intestinal contents establishes these radionuclide agents as superior to both radiographic oral and intravenous cholangiography in the investigation of the acute abdomen.
  • (19) Moreover, subtle improvements observed in earlier investigations were not confirmed.
  • (20) Various compounds show subtle but significant differences in blood clearance, excretion, and soft-tissue uptake.