Simplicity is the quality of being plain and easy to grasp. Elegant simplicity, for the sake of simplicity, the simplicity of the design.
It is hard to achieve, which is why designers talk about it constantly: taking things away is more work than adding them. Simplicity itself is a fixed phrase meaning very easy indeed, as in the whole thing is simplicity itself.
1nounsimplicityThe quality of being plain and easy to grasp.
“The beauty of the recipe is its simplicity: just bread, tomatoes and olive oil.”
simplicity is a quality.
Latin simplicitas comes from simplex, single or plain — sim, one, plus plicare, to fold.
Latin
simplicitās
Old French
simplicite
Middle English
simplicite
English, today
simplicity
Built from
From Middle English simplicite, from Old French simplicite, from Latin simplicitās, from simplex (“simple”). See simple. by surface analysis, simple + -icity. Partially displaced native English onefoldness.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA