plain clothes

1. 1.

   ordinary clothing as distinguished from uniforms, work clothes, clerical garb, etc.

   Synonymscivilian clothingcivilian dresscivilian garb

   Broaderclothing

   Narrowerciviesmufti

Questions about plain clothes

What does plain clothes mean?

plain clothes means "ordinary clothing as distinguished from uniforms, work clothes, clerical garb, etc.".

What is another word for plain clothes?

Close synonyms include civilian clothing, civilian dress, civilian garb. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is plain clothes a common word?

plain clothes is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.