plain as day

Idioms and Phrases

Also, plain as the nose on your face . Very obvious, quite clear, as in It's plain as day that they must sell their house before they can buy another , or It's plain as the nose on your face that she's lying . These similes have largely replaced the earlier plain as a packstaff or pikestaff , from the mid-1500s, alluding to the stick on which a peddler carried his wares over his shoulder. The first term, from the late 1800s, is probably a shortening of plain as the sun at midday ; the variant dates from the late 1600s.

Example Sentences

Baker pushes the comedy, but, just as with Ani, the injustice of it all is plain as day.

From Los Angeles Times

“Blake absolutely stole the Msaidizi. It’s plain as day! We’re gonna remove the Gift from him and wipe his memory. The children are guilty too. They must be apprehended immediately!”

From Literature

There, plain as day, was the hilt of the knight’s sword, sitting securely in the scabbard strapped to Jack’s shoulder.

From Literature

Yet it was plain as day that Biden has been making the big decisions all along, whether it was pulling out of Afghanistan—against the advice of his foreign policy team—or insisting that America continue to assist Ukraine.

From Salon

It’s plain as day that the states are not the primary unit of American democracy.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• conspicuous
• indisputable
• noticeable
• obvious
• palpable
• unmistakable
• visible