plan

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

  1. 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.
    • The plans for many important buildings were once publicly available.

    Synonyms: design scheme chart diagram map graph graphic plan plot schematic

  2. A set of intended actions, usually mutually related, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
    • He didn't really have a plan; he had a goal and a habit of control.
    • Sweet darling, don't you know somewhere / In the land where plans are made / Someone has written a story / Put down the pen and turn the page - 1977, The Originals, “Been Decided”, in Down to Love Town:
    • Life is what happens to you / While you're busy making other plans - 1980, John Lennon, “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”, in Double Fantasy:

    Synonyms: design scheme blueprint plan plot project proposal

  3. A two-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.
    • Seen in plan, the building had numerous passageways not apparent to visitors.

    Synonyms: floor plan

  4. A method; a way of procedure; a custom.
    • The simple plan, / That they should take who have the power, / And they should keep who can. - 1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave:
  5. A subscription to a service.
    • a phone plan
    • an Internet plan

Origin

Borrowed from French plan (“flat surface, ground plot, map”), from Latin plānus. Some sources also argue for influence or alteration of French plant, from plantar, from Latin plantāre (“set, fix in place”). Compare plane, plain.

Forms

plans

Synonyms

blueprint

Derived

according to plan action plan American plan attack plan band plan battleplan bayplan birth plan body plan business plan Cadillac plan cafeteria plan campaign plan Chequers plan city plan contingency plan counterplan development plan dividend reinvestment plan escalation plan European plan flatplan flight plan floor plan

Verb

  1. To design (a building, machine, etc.).
    • The architect planned the building for the client.
  2. To create a plan for.
    • They jointly planned the project in phases, with good detail for the first month.
  3. To intend.
    • He planned to go, but work intervened.
    • It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits. - 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast...
  4. To make a plan.
    • They planned for the worst, bringing lots of emergency supplies.

Forms

plans planning planned

Derived

counterplan foreplan misplan outplan overplan plan ahead plannability plannable plannee planner plan on plan out preplan replan underplan