How to Use plainspoken in a Sentence

plainspoken

adjective
  • Smith knows how to tease the glory out of the most plainspoken English.
    Laura Miller, Slate Magazine, 20 Feb. 2017
  • It was parked on a lot owned by Ted Moser, a plainspoken man who outfits vehicles for films and TV shows.
    Daniel Miller, latimes.com, 9 July 2019
  • Those that stuck their nose in there got on the field; those that shied away from contact stood on the sideline with Long, the plainspoken former tight end from North Alabama.
    Mike Berardino, Indianapolis Star, 12 Dec. 2019
  • As Dylan gains steam, though, his plainspoken descriptions of the books start to glow with an unexpected beauty and power.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 6 June 2017
  • All these decades later, Elder still thinks that what society needs more of than government is the plainspoken wisdom of his parents.
    Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2021
  • But that’s the glory of Parks’ writing, Diamond’s direction and the plainspoken intensity of the 12-person cast.
    Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • In dozens of television appearances that range from late nights to weekends, Slavitt has used his plainspoken manner to make the case for the vaccine while arguing those with doubts need answers, not rebukes.
    Jeremy Diamond, CNN, 29 Apr. 2021
  • Her relationship with Doo is at the heart of everything, and the plainspoken country star doesn’t hesitate to reveal the ups and downs, joys and frustrations, successes and failures.
    Mary Colurso | McOlurso@al.com, al, 14 Feb. 2021
  • There will be a lot of plainspoken high-octane humble artistry at the service of songs and emotion during this installment of Nelson’s ever-evolving festival.
    John Adamian, courant.com, 7 June 2019
  • Many of Prine’s longtime fans would agree, pointing to his plainspoken style, keen eye for detail and knack for finding poetry in everyday experience.
    Mary Colurso | McOlurso@al.com, al, 8 Apr. 2020
  • The final gallery is thoughtfully plainspoken, hung with Frances F. Denny’s frank and stoic portraits of contemporary adherents of the Wiccan faith.
    BostonGlobe.com, 28 Oct. 2021
  • With pew-style booths near the bar and wraparound meetinghouse benches in the dining room, the restaurant captures the plainspoken rigor of Shaker craft and, by extension, American ingenuity.
    Adrianna Glaviano, WSJ, 25 May 2021
  • Moores, the plainspoken 62-year-old who leads this division, sees a familiar expression on the faces that pass through — not just parents, but case managers and attorneys and a parade of others who’ve seen their work overtaken by pills and powders.
    Washington Post, 12 Dec. 2017
  • In plainspoken terms, Redon’s artwork was strange, his career straddling a rapidly-changing art world which saw the invention of Impressionism on one end and the invention of abstraction on the other.
    Chadd Scott, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2021
  • Hers are lines of forceful simplicity, not so much plainspoken as distilled and vibrating with a mysterious ache.
    BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022
  • What binds Gay’s 21 short stories is that they are told with direct, plainspoken intimacy — the same voice that makes her personal essays so compulsively readable.
    Chronicle Staff Report, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Seventeen years into the Portland rock eccentrics’ career, Colin Meloy is writing more plainspoken lyrics than ever while his band accesses the joy of ’80s synthpop.
    Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Leave the posturing and peacocking to the politicians; this season, designers imagined men in cardigans, corduroys and plainspoken jackets, all in humble, modest tones: wren-brown, pigeon-gray, mushroom-white.
    Hanya Yanagihara, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2017
  • The soul-crushing poetry in those three simple lines about deep-seated self-loathing, yearning to turn deceit into something life-affirming and the promise of rebirth, makes for one of the purest examples of Tweedy’s plainspoken complexity.
    Billboard Staff, Billboard, 28 Apr. 2017
  • The mix of stories often revolved around her plainspoken nature and frequent wisecracks, her devotion to a large extended family and her role as astute guardian and fixer who sought to preserve the family’s legacy.
    Bradley Olson, WSJ, 21 Apr. 2018
  • Queen Elizabeth is still more plainspoken in her contempt, after having initially granted Richard favor.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 11 July 2022
  • Harry's House is also emotionally heavy at times, with Styles' understated delivery adding power to his plainspoken lyrics.
    Maura Johnston, EW.com, 16 May 2022
  • In this searching, plainspoken poetry collection, the natural world—infinitely more mysterious in the volatile era of advanced climate destruction—provides a potent metaphor for the mark left by grief.
    The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2021
  • The plainspoken and unconventional Fetterman cuts a more progressive figure than Lamb.
    Marc Levy, Star Tribune, 15 Mar. 2021
  • Unlike many of the industry’s other plainspoken deflaters of hype and pseudoscience, Suennen is generally careful not to publicly call out specific companies or entrepreneurs.
    Rebecca Robbins, STAT, 6 June 2018
  • This museum tells the complicated story of suffering with a plainspoken forthrightness that is especially poignant given the general restraint of Japanese culture.
    Mary Louise Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2018
  • Its private villas, the core of Studio KO’s architectural practice, offer eloquent but plainspoken dialogues with their remote, sometimes forbidding settings.
    Joshua Levine, WSJ, 13 Aug. 2018
  • Her plainspoken advice for anyone negotiating for better pay?
    Emily Strohm, PEOPLE.com, 3 Nov. 2021
  • The music is consistently, intentionally sparse; many of the album’s songs feature nothing but intricate, intertwined acoustic guitar and close harmonies, wedded to simple, plainspoken lyrics that reflect snatches of place and experience.
    Stuart Munro, BostonGlobe.com, 10 July 2019
  • This might seem a straightforward victory—the narrator has unburdened herself—but Rogers’s plainspoken acknowledgment of the self-destruction that accompanies true metamorphosis is eloquent.
    Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plainspoken.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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