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plan

Pronunciation: /plan/
Translate plan | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of plan

noun

  • 1a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something:the UN peace plan
  • [with modifier] a scheme for the regular payment of contributions towards a pension, savings account, or insurance policy:a personal pension plan
  • 2an intention or decision about what one is going to do:I have no plans to retire
  • 3a detailed map or diagram:a street plan
  • a drawing or diagram made by projection on a horizontal plane, especially one showing the layout of a building or one floor of a building. Compare with elevation (sense 3).
  • a diagram showing how something will be arranged:look at the seating plan
  • (in the Methodist Church) a document listing the preachers for all the services in a circuit during a given period.

verb (plans, planning, planned)

[with object]
  • 1decide on and make arrangements for in advance:they were planning a trip to Egypt [with infinitive]:he plans to fly on Wednesday [no object]:we plan on getting married in the near future
  • 2design or make a plan of (something to be made or built):she had planned the garden from scratch

Phrases

someone's (or the) best plan

a person’s (or the) most sensible course of action:William’s best plan would be to get a job

go according to plan

happen as one arranged or intended: if all goes according to plan, this money can be used as seed capital for a new business

make a plan

South African devise a way of overcoming difficulties: leave it to me—I’ll make a plan

plan A (or plan B)

see A1, B1.

plan of action (or campaign or attack)

an organized programme of measures to be taken in order to achieve a goal.

Origin:

late 17th century: from French, from earlier plant 'ground plan, plane surface', influenced in sense by Italian pianta 'plan of building'. Compare with plant

plan in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of plan in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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