plan

Etymology

Borrowed 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plæn/
• (US regional) IPA^(key): [plɛən]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æn

Noun

plan (plural plans)

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.

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.

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.

4. A method; a way of procedure; a custom.
   • Wordsworth

     The simple plan, / That they should take who have the power, / And they should keep who can.

5. A subscription to a service; e.g., a phone plan, an internet plan.

Verb

plan (third-person singular simple present plans, present participle planning, simple past and past participle planned)

1. (transitive) To design (a building, machine, etc.).

   The architect planned the building for the client.

2. (transitive) To create a plan for.

   They jointly planned the project in phases, with good detail for the first month.

3. (intransitive) To intend.
   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     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.

   He planned to go, but work intervened.

4. See plan on.

   I was planning on going, but something came up.

5. (intransitive) To make a plan.

   They planned for the worst, bringing lots of emergency supplies.

Further reading

• plan in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• plan in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /plɑn/

Noun

plan n (plural plannen, diminutive plannetje n)

1. A set of intended actions, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
2. A technical drawing.
3. A detailed map.

Verb

plan

1. first-person singular present indicative of plannen
2. imperative of plannen

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophone: plans

Etymology 1

From earlier plant, derived from the verb planter. Doublet of plant.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin plānus. Doublet of plain, which was inherited.

Further reading

• “plan” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Latin plānus.

Adjective

plan

1. flat, level, plane

Noun

plan m (plural plans)

1. plane
2. plan

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aːn

Adjective

plan (comparative planer, superlative am plansten)

1. planar

Further reading

• plan in Duden online

Etymology

From Latin planum, via German Plan

Noun

plan m (definite singular planen, indefinite plural planer, definite plural planene)

1. a plan
2. a level or plane

References

• “plan” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plaːn/ (example of pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From German Plan, from Latin planum.

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

From Latin planus.

References

• “plan” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plan/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

plan m inan

1. plan
2. set (scenery for a film or play)

Further reading

• plan in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plâːn/
• Rhymes: -âːn

Noun

plȃn m (Cyrillic spelling пла̑н)

1. plan

Etymology

From plano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plan/, [plãn]

Noun

plan m (plural planes)

1. plan
2. intention
3. (colloquial) mood
   • Vamos en plan rómantico.

     We’re going in a romantic mood.

Further reading

• “plan” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

plan (comparative planare, superlative planast)

1. flat; horizontal (of a surface)

Noun

plan n

1. (mathematics) a plane; flat surface.
2. a plane; level of existence
   • astralplan
     • astral plane
3. an aeroplane

Noun

plan c

1. a drawing showing how to construct a building, machine, etc.
2. a set of intended actions, through which one expects to achieve a goal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [plan]

Noun

plan (plural plans)

1. plant (botany)