plane

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an aircraft that has a fixed wing and is powered by propellers or jets

   the flight was delayed due to trouble with the airplane

2. 2
   noun

   a carpenter's hand tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing or shaping wood

   the cabinetmaker used a plane for the finish work

3. 3
   noun

   in mathematics, an unbounded two-dimensional shape

   We will refer to the plane of the graph as the X-Y plane.

4. 4
   noun

   a level of existence or development

   They lived on a worldly plane but dreamt of ascending to a more spiritual one.

5. 5
   verb

   make even or smooth, with or as with a carpenter's plane

   plane the top of the door

6. 6
   noun

   A flat surface extending infinitely in all directions (e.g. horizontal or vertical plane); a bounded portion thereof.

   Mirrors in the compartments have been canted out of the vertical plane to reduce reflections to the passengers when seated.

7. 7
   noun

   A level of existence or development.

   astral plane

8. 8
   noun

   An airplane; an aeroplane.

   The plane is travelling impossibly slowly – 30km an hour – when it gently noses up and leaves the ground. With air beneath them, the rangy wings seem to gain strength; the fuselage that on the ground seemed flimsy becomes elegant, like a crane vaunting in flight. It seems not to fly, though, so much as float.

Etymology

From Middle English plane, borrowed from Old French plane, from Latin platanus, from Ancient Greek πλάτανος (plátanos), from πλατύς (platús, “wide, broad”).