Plan
nounA detailed proposal or arrangement of steps for achieving something in the future.
How to spell plan
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce plan
What does plan mean?
- nounA detailed proposal or arrangement of steps for achieving something in the future.
- verbTo decide on and arrange the details of something before doing it.
Plan in a sentence
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noun
The team drew up a detailed plan for the product launch.
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verb
We need to plan the budget carefully before the new financial year.
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noun
Our holiday plan fell apart when the flights were cancelled.
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verb
They plan to renovate the kitchen over the summer.
Where does plan come from?
Language of origin: French
The word comes from the French 'plan', meaning a flat ground surface or a drawing made on flat paper, which in turn descends from the Latin 'planum', the neuter form of 'planus' meaning 'flat' or 'level'. English borrowed it in the 1600s, first in the sense of a technical drawing of a building seen from above, the kind of flat representation an architect produces. From that drawn 'flat layout' the meaning quickly broadened to any worked-out scheme or arrangement of steps for the future. The same Latin 'planus' lies behind the words 'plain' (flat, simple) and 'plane' (a flat surface), so the cluster of look-alike words all share one idea of flatness. Because 'plan' is short and phonetic, its spelling has stayed remarkably stable since it entered the language.
How the word is built
- plan (a flat drawing or scheme; from Latin planum 'flat surface')
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