Planned

How to spell planned

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce planned

What does planned mean?

1. verbDecided on and arranged the details of something in advance; the past tense of plan.

Planned in a sentence

• They planned the wedding for months before the big day.

• We planned the route carefully to avoid the motorway tolls.

Where does planned come from?

Language of origin: French

The verb 'plan' came into English in the early 1700s from French 'plan', meaning a flat drawing, a ground plot, or a scheme, which itself traces back to the Latin 'planum', the neuter of 'planus' meaning 'flat' or 'level'. The original idea was a drawing made on a flat surface, such as the floor plan of a building, and from that physical sense the meaning broadened to any arranged scheme of action. English added its regular past tense ending to make 'planned'. Because the root word ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant and the stress falls on that final syllable, the consonant doubles before '-ed', giving the double 'n' that writers so often forget. The same Latin 'planus' also gives us 'plain' and 'plane', all sharing the underlying notion of something flat or level.

How the word is built

• plan (root: a scheme or design)
• -ned (doubled consonant
• -ed past tense)