Word.ws English Dictionary

plan

[pleən] ~ [plɛən]UK/plæn/

plan 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

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.
    • 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 page1977, The Originals, “Been Decided”, in Down to Love Town
  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

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.
    • 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 enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
  4. (intransitive) To make a plan.
    • They planned for the worst, bringing lots of emergency supplies.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: PLAN

PLAN

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of People's Liberation Army Navy The national navy of the People's Republic of China.
  2. (US) A particular standardized examination taken by high-school students.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Plan

Plan

  1. A surname.

plan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

plan in Hindi

technical drawing
मापचित्र māpcitra, नक़्शा naqśā, प्लैन plain
set of intended actions — see also project
योजना yojnā, प्रोग्राम progrām, प्लैन plain, तदबीर tadbīr
2-dimensional drawing from above — see also layout
मापचित्र māpcitra
to intend
प्रोग्राम बनाना progrām banānā

plan in Tamil

technical drawing
திட்டம் tiṭṭam
set of intended actions — see also project
திட்டம் tiṭṭam
2-dimensional drawing from above — see also layout
திட்டம் tiṭṭam
subscription plan
திட்டம் tiṭṭam

plan in Marathi

set of intended actions — see also project
योजना yojnā

plan in Urdu

technical drawing
نَقْشَہ naqśa
set of intended actions — see also project
نَقْشَہ naqśa, تَدْبِیر tadbīr
More languagesFewer languages
plan in Sanskrit
न्याय nyāya
plan in Assamese
পাং paṅ
plan in Arabic
خِطَّة ḵiṭṭa, خُطَّة ḵuṭṭa, خطة ḵeṭa, خَطَّطَ ḵaṭṭaṭa
plan in Malay
merancang
plan in Indonesian
denah, rancangan, merancang, berencana
plan in Persian
پِلان pelân, پْلان plân, نَقْشِه naġše, طَرْح tarh
plan in Thai
แบบแปลน bɛ̀ɛp-bplɛɛn, ผัง pǎng, แผน pɛ̌ɛn, แผนงาน pɛ̌ɛn-ngaan
plan in Vietnamese
kế hoạch
plan in Myanmar
အစီအစဉ် a.cia.cany

Examples of plan in a sentence

  • With that obstacle removed, I am now able to proceed with my plan.
  • They were to have been married overseas but COVID forced a change of plans.
  • They proposed an ambitious plan to bank people in remote rural communities.

All 40 example sentences with plan

Synonyms of plan

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of plan

Forms of plan

Noun
pluralplans
Verb
third-person singular presentplans
present participleplanning
past participleplanned
pastplanned

Past tense of plan: planned

Plural of plan: plans

Origin of plan

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”). Doublet of llano, piano, plane, and plain.

Words formed from plan

Phrases with plan

17 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with plan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about plan

What does plan mean?
Plan means 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.
What is plan in Hindi?
Plan in Hindi is मापचित्र (māpcitra), नक़्शा (naqśā), प्लैन (plain). See Plan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is plan?
Plan can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce plan?
Plan is pronounced /plæn/ (UK).
What is the plural of plan?
The plural of plan is plans.

Words near plan in the dictionary

  1. plaminogen
  2. plamodel
  3. plamodels
  4. Plamondon
  5. Plamondons
  6. plan
  7. plan A
  8. plan ahead
  9. plan As
  10. plan B
  11. plan Bs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plan (page history and authors); PLAN (page history and authors); Plan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-plan.ogg.

Cite this entry: “plan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.