plain text

British

noun

telecomm a message set in a directly readable form rather than in coded groups

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"The scrambled plain text was found, but without the coding method or the key. This is a very important distinction," he separately told a news conference in November.

From Barron's • Nov. 19, 2025

Or can they rest a decision on the plain text alone?

From Slate • Nov. 5, 2025

"Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don't know the context and the delivery is in plain text," a subsequent post read.

From BBC • Sep. 16, 2024

"Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text," he added.

From Salon • Sep. 16, 2024

Preservation Project Gutenberg already has numerous plain text files that are 20-30 years old.

From ERPANET Case Study: Project Gutenberg by ERPANET

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023