Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An orderly or step-by-step conception or proposal for accomplishing an objective.
  • noun A proposed or intended course of action.
  • noun A systematic arrangement of elements or important parts; a configuration or outline.
  • noun A drawing or diagram made to scale showing the structure or arrangement of something.
  • noun In perspective rendering, one of several imaginary planes perpendicular to the line of vision between the viewer and the object being depicted.
  • noun A program or policy stipulating a service or benefit.
  • intransitive verb To formulate a scheme or program for the accomplishment, enactment, or attainment of.
  • intransitive verb To have as a specific aim or purpose; intend.
  • intransitive verb To draw or make a graphic representation of.
  • intransitive verb To make plans.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lay down on paper the different parts, divisions, dimensions, and methods of construction of (a machine, ship, building, etc.): as, to plan an edifice.
  • To scheme; lay plans for; devise ways and means for: as, to plan the conquest of a country; to plan one's escape.
  • Synonyms To figure, sketch out, delineate.
  • noun The representation of anything drawn on a plane, as a map or chart; specifically, the representation of a building or other structure in horizontal section, as it stands or is intended to stand on the ground, showing its extent, and the division and distribution of its area into apartments, rooms, passages, etc., or its method of construction and the relation of its parts.
  • noun Disposition of parts according to a certain design.
  • noun A formulated scheme for the accomplishment of some object or the attainment of an end; the various steps which have been thought out and decided upon for the carrying out of some project or operation.
  • noun A method or process; a way; a custom.
  • noun A type of structure: as, man is the highest development of the vertebrate plan; the plan of a mollusk or an insect.
  • noun In Ireland, a system of procedure formed in 1886 and supported by the National League. The officers of the League, acting as trustees, receive the rent of tenants on rack-rented estates; this money, less a certain abatement demanded by the tenants, is offered to the landlord; if the latter refuses it, it is used for support in cases of eviction.
  • noun Plan, Scheme, Project, Design, plot. Design may represent the end which a plan, scheme, or project is intended to promote. They all indicate thought given to the general aim and to the details. Scheme is the most likely to represent something speculative or visionary : as, he was full of schemes; project stands next to it in this respect, but project may also be the most definite or concrete : as, a project for building a bridge. Plan is the least definite; design and plan may be very indefinite, or have a concrete sense : as, a design or plan of going away; a design or plan of a house. Scheme is often used in a bad sense; design sometimes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form a delineation of; to draught; to represent, as by a diagram.
  • transitive verb To scheme; to devise; to contrive; to form in design.
  • noun A draught or form; properly, a representation drawn on a plane, as a map or a chart; especially, a top view, as of a machine, or the representation or delineation of a horizontal section of anything, as of a building; a graphic representation; a diagram.
  • noun A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project
  • noun A method; a way of procedure; a custom.
  • noun etc. See under Body, Floor, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A drawing showing technical details of a building, machine, etc., with unwanted details omitted, and often using symbols rather than detailed drawing to represent doors, valves, etc.
  • noun A set of intended actions, usually mutually related, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
  • noun A 2-dimensional drawing of a building as seen from above with obscuring or irrelevant details such as roof removed, or of a floor of a building, revealing the internal layout; as distinct from the elevation.
  • verb transitive To design (a building, machine, etc.)
  • verb transitive To create a plan for.
  • verb intransitive To intend.
  • verb See plan on.
  • verb intransitive To make a plan.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an arrangement scheme
  • verb make a design of; plan out in systematic, often graphic form
  • noun scale drawing of a structure
  • verb make or work out a plan for; devise
  • verb have the will and intention to carry out some action
  • verb make plans for something
  • noun a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, alteration (influenced by plan, flat surface) of plant, ground plan, map, from planter, to plant, from Latin plantāre, from planta, sole of the foot; see plat- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French plan ("a ground-plot of a building"), from plan ("flat"), a later form of the vernacular plain, from Latin planus ("flat, plane"); see plain, plane.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word plan.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.