plan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   scale drawing of a structure

   the plans for City Hall were on file

2. 2
   noun

   a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished

   they drew up a six-step plan

3. 3
   verb

   make plans for something

   I am planning a trip with my family.

4. 4
   verb

   have the will and intention to carry out some action

   They plan to be in graduate school next year.

5. 5
   verb

   make a design of

   plan out in systematic, often graphic form

6. 6
   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.

   The plans for many important buildings were once publicly available.

7. 7
   noun

   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.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

Etymology

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.