Etimology
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.
noun
plan (plural plans)
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.
A set of intended actions, usually mutually related, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
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.
A method; a way of procedure; a custom.
A subscription to a service.
Examples
The plans for many important buildings were once publicly available.
He didn't really have a plan; he had a goal and a habit of control.
Life is what happens to you / While you're busy making other plans
Synonym: floor plan
Seen in plan, the building had numerous passageways not apparent to visitors.
The simple plan, / That they should take who have the power, / And they should keep who can.
a phone plan
an Internet plan
Related words
synonyms
blueprint
verb
plan (third-person singular simple present plans, present participle planning, simple past and past participle planned)
(transitive) To design (a building, machine, etc.).
(transitive) To create a plan for.
(intransitive) To intend.
(intransitive) To make a plan.
Examples
The architect planned the building for the client.
They jointly planned the project in phases, with good detail for the first month.
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.
They planned for the worst, bringing lots of emergency supplies.