Dictionary Definition
plan
Noun
1 a series of steps to be carried out or goals to
be accomplished; "they drew up a six-step plan"; "they discussed
plans for a new bond issue" [syn: program, programme]
2 an arrangement scheme; "the awkward design of
the keyboard made operation difficult"; "it was an excellent design
for living"; "a plan for seating guests" [syn: design]
3 scale drawing of a structure; "the plans for
City Hall were on file" [syn: architectural
plan]
Verb
1 have the will and intention to carry out some
action; "He plans to be in graduate school next year"; "The rebels
had planned turmoil and confusion" [syn: be after]
2 make plans for something; "He is planning a
trip with his family"
3 make or work out a plan for; devise; "They
contrived to murder their boss"; "design a new sales strategy";
"plan an attack" [syn: project, contrive, design]
4 make a design of; plan out in systematic, often
graphic form; "design a better mousetrap"; "plan the new wing of
the museum" [syn: design]
[also: planning,
planned]
User Contributed Dictionary
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.
- The plans for many important buildings were once publicly available.
- A set of intended
actions, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
- He didn't really have a plan; he had a goal and a habit of control.
- A 2-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
Derived terms
Related terms
- (2-dimensional drawing of a building) blueprint
Translations
technical drawing
- Czech: plán
- Dutch: schema, ontwerp
- Finnish: kaava, kaavapiirros
- French: schema
- German: Plan
- Japanese: 設計図 (せっけいず, sekkeizu), 図解 (ずかい, zukai)
- Portuguese: planta
- Swedish plan
set of intended actions
2-dimensional drawing from above
- Czech: plán
- Dutch: ontwerp, plan
- Finnish: pohjakaava, pohjapiirros
- French: plan
- German: Plan
- Portuguese: planta
- Swedish plan
Verb
Usage notes
- This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Derived terms
Translations
to design
- Dutch: ontwerpen
- Finnish: suunnitella
- German: anlegen, planen
- Greek: σχεδιάζω (schediázo)
- Japanese: 設計する (せっけいする, sekkeisuru)
- Polish: projektować
- Portuguese: planejar
- Swedish: projektera
to create a plan for
- Arabic:
- Chinese: 计划 (jìhuà)
- Czech: plánovat
- Dutch: ontwerpen, plannen
- Finnish: suunnitella
- French: projeter
- German: planen
- Greek: σχεδιάζω (schediázo)
- Hungarian: tervezni
- Italian: progettare
- Japanese: 計画する (けいかくする, keikaku suru)
- Korean: 계획하다 (gyehoekhada)
- Polish: planować
- Portuguese: planejar
- Russian: планировать (planírovat’)
- Spanish: planear
- Swedish: planera
to intend
- Dutch: van plan zijn, plannen
- Finnish: suunnitella, aikoa, kaavailla
- German: planen, vorhaben
- Greek: σχεδιάζω (schediázo)
- Polish: planować
- Swedish: planera
Dutch
Pronunciation
- /plɑn/
Noun
Derived terms
Verb
plan- fpimp plannen
French
Pronunciation
- /plɑ̃/
- /plA~/
Noun
planAdjective
planGerman
Adjective
plandefn Romanian
Spanish
Etymology
From planusNoun
planSee also
Swedish
Pronunciation
Adjective
plan- Flat; horizontal (of a surface).
Noun
planSee also
Synonyms
- (aeroplane) flygplan
Noun
planExtensive Definition
Informal or ad-hoc plans are
created by individuals in all of their pursuits. Structured and
formal plans, used by multiple people, are more likely to occur in
projects, diplomacy, careers, economic
development, military campaigns, combat, or in the conduct of
other business.
It is common for less formal plans to be created
as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained
and put to use. More formal plans as used for business and military
purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought,
are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a
form that is accessible to multiple people across time and space.
This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the
plan.
Planning
To organize a series of actions to achieve a
specified outcome.
The term planning implies the working out of
sub-components in some degree of detail. Broader-brush enunciations
of objectives may qualify as metaphorical roadmaps.
Planning literally just means the creation of a
plan; it can be as simple as making a list. It has
acquired a technical meaning, however, to cover the area of
government legislation and regulations related to the
use of resources.
Planning can refer to the planned use of any and
all resources, as in the succession of Five-Year
Plans through which the government of the Soviet Union
sought to develop the country. However, the term is most frequently
used in relation to planning for the use of land and related
resources, for example in urban
planning, transportation
planning, and so forth.
Thus, in a governmental context, "planning"
without any qualification is most likely to mean the regulation of
land
use. See also zoning.
Quotation
- Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential -- Winston Churchill
- Plans are nothing; planning is everything.-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- No battleplan survives contact with the enemy. -- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Methodology
The discipline of planning has occupied great minds and theoreticians. Concepts such as top-down planning (as opposed to bottom-up planning) reveal similarities with the systems thinking behind the Top-Down Model.The subject touches such broad fields as psychology, game theory,
communications and
information
theory, which inform the planning methods that people seek to
use and refine; as well as logic and science (ie methodological
naturalism) which serve as a means of testing different parts of a
plan for reliability or consistency.
The specific methods used to create and refine
plans depends on who is to make it, who is to put it to use, and
what resources are available for the task. The methods used by an
individual in their
mind or personal
organiser, may be very different from the collection of
planning techniques found in a corporate board-room, and
the planning done by a project
manager has different priorities and uses different tools to
the planning done by an engineer or industrial
designer.
Types of plan
The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity. however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another. for instance, there is a close relationship between the shor-and long-term categories and tha strategic and oerational categories.strategic versus operational plans Plans that
apply to the entire orgainzation, that establish the organization's
overall objectives, and that seek to
Examples of plans
See also
plan in Danish: Plan (projekt)
plan in German: Plan
plan in French: Plan
plan in Hindi: योजना
plan in Croatian: Plan (ekonomija)
plan in Italian: Piano (strategia)
plan in Lithuanian: Planavimas
plan in Japanese: 計画
plan in Polish: Planowanie
plan in Portuguese: Planejamento
plan in Serbian: План
plan in Yiddish: פלאן
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
action,
adjust, affair, aim, aim at, alphabet, ambition, anagnorisis, anatomy, angle, animus, anticipate, approach, architectonics, architecture, argument, arrange, arrangement, art, aspiration, aspire after,
aspire to, atmosphere, attempt, await, background, be after, be
destined, be fated, be imminent, be to be, be to come, beget, blueprint, breed, bring forth, bring into
being, build, building, business, calculate, call into being,
cast, catalog, catalogue raisonne,
catastrophe,
charactering,
characterization,
chart, choreography, clear for
action, clear the decks, codify, coin, color, come, come on, commitment, complication, composition, conceive, conception, concert, concoct, conformation, constitution, construction, contemplate, continuity, contract, contrivance, contrive, conventional
representation, cook up, coordinate, counsel, course of action,
creation, cure, cut out, dance notation,
deal, delineate, delineation, demonstration, denouement, depiction, depictment, deploy, desideration, desideratum, design, desire, destine, determination, determine, develop, development, device, devise, diagram, discover, drama, draw near, draw on,
drawing, dream up,
dress, drive at, effect, effort, engagement, engender, enterprise, envisage, envision, episode, evolve, exemplification,
expect, fable, fabric, fabricate, fabrication, falling action,
fashion, fashioning, figuration, figure, fix, fix up, fixed purpose, forecast, foresee, foretell, forethink, forging, form, format, formation, formula, frame, frame up, function, game plan, generate, get ready, getup, gimmick, give being to, give
rise to, go for, graph,
ground plan, harbor a design, harmonize, hatch, have every intention,
hieroglyphic,
hope, iconography, idea, ideogram, illustration, imagery, imaging, improvise, incident, intend, intendment, intent, intention, invent, lay down, lay out, lay
plans, layout, letter, lie ahead, limning, line, local color, logogram, logograph, look for, look
forward to, loom, make, make a projection, make
arrangements, make do with, make preparations, make ready, make up,
makeup, making, manufacture, map, map out, mature, mean, meaning, means, method, methodize, mind, mint, mobilize, mold, molding, mood, motif, motive, movement, musical notation,
mythos, near, nisus, normalize, notation, notion, object, obligation, operation, orderliness, organic
structure, organism,
organization,
organize, originate, outline, pack, pack the deal, pattern, patterning, peripeteia, physique, pictogram, picturization, plan ahead,
platform, plot, point, policy, portraiture, portrayal, prearrange, preconcert, preconsider, precontrive, predesign, predetermine, predict, prefigurement, premeditate, preorder, prep, prepare, preresolve, presentment, pretreat, printing, procedure, process, procreate, production, program, project, projection, prophesy, proposal, propose, proposition, prospectus, provide, purport, purpose, put in shape, rationalize, ready, ready up, realization, recognition, regularize, regulate, rendering, rendition, representation, resolution, resolve, rig, rising action, routinize, sake, scenario, schedule, schema, schematize, scheme, score, script, secondary plot, set, set up, settle, settle preliminaries,
setup, sew up, shape, shaping, sketch, slant, spawn, stack the cards, standardize, story, strategy, strike out, striving, structure, structuring, study, subject, subplot, switch, syllabary, symbol, synchronize, system, systematize, tablature, table, table of contents, tan, task, tectonics, texture, thematic development,
theme, think, think out, think up,
threaten, tissue, tone, topic, treat, trim, try out, tune, tune up, twist, undertaking, venture, view, warp and woof, way, weave, web, will, work, work out, work out
beforehand, work up, writing