Meaning of plan in English

plan

noun

/plæn/ us

/plæn/

plan noun (DECISION)

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A2 [ C ]

a set of decisions about how to do something in the future:

a company's business plan

a negotiated peace plan

a five-year plan

holiday plans

What are your plans for this weekend?

[ + to infinitive ] My plan is to sell the house and buy an apartment.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

an idea

ideaI've got an idea - why don't we ask John for help?
planThe plan is to hire a car when we get there.
thoughtHave you had any thoughts on presents for your mother?
suggestionHave you got any suggestions for improvements?
brainwaveUK I wasn't sure what to do and then I had brainwave - I could ask Anna for help.
brainstormUS She was stuck until she had a brainstorm and the solution came to her.

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[ C ]

a type of arrangement for financial investment:

a pension/savings plan

go according to plan

to happen in the way you intend:

Events of this type rarely go according to plan.

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The government recently announced details of its plan to streamline the taxation system.
She explained her plan in a few brief sentences.
The plan entails rerouting traffic through a tunnel to create a vast pedestrian area around Al-Azhar.
The management board has set out its plans for the coming year.
We've had to forget about our holiday plans because of David's accident.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Plans and arrangements

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Stock markets

plan noun (DRAWING)

B2 [ C ]

a drawing of a building, town, area, vehicle, machine, etc. that only shows its shape from above, its size, and the position of important details:

a street plan (= a type of map of a town showing the roads)

a seating plan (= a drawing that shows where each person will sit)

cherezoff/iStock/Getty Images Plus/GettyImages

plans [ plural ]

drawings from which something is made or built:

draw up plans The architect showed us the house plans that she had drawn up.

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architectural plans
The plans should be drawn as accurately as possible, showing all the measurements.
Have you worked out the seating plan for the wedding reception?
The shaded areas of the plans show where the houses will be built.
The developers submitted building plans to the council for approval.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Architecture

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plan

verb

/plæn/ us

/plæn/

-nn-

plan verb (DECIDE)

B1 [ I + adv/prep, T ]

to think about and decide what you are going to do or how you are going to do something:

She helped them to plan their route.

If we plan carefully, we should be able to stay within our budget.

[ + question word ] She's already planning how to spend her prize money.

A2 [ I or T ]

to intend to do something or that an event or result should happen:

Our meeting wasn't planned - it was completely accidental.

[ + to infinitive ] I'm not planning to stay here much longer.

[ + adv/prep ] We only planned for six guests, but then someone brought a friend.

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Do you plan to leave London in the distant future or the near future?
How do you plan to spend your holiday?
The four biggest banks are all planning to cut their service charges.
We're planning to turn the smallest bedroom into an office.
The route we had planned took us right across Greece.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Planning, expecting and arranging

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plan verb (DESIGN)

[ T ]

to design a building or structure:

The people who planned these new towns had a vision of clean modern housing for everyone.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Inventing, designing and innovation

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Phrasal verbs

plan on doing something
plan on someone/something doing something
plan something out

(Definition of plan from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

plan | American Dictionary

plan

noun

/plæn/

plan noun (METHOD)

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[ C/U ]

a method for doing or achieving something, usually involving a series of actions or stages, or something you have arranged to do:

[ C ] The financial plan calls for growth of 5% next year.

[ C ] They had plans to have dinner at a local restaurant.

[ C/U ]

A plan is also an arrangement for investment:

[ C ] a pension/savings plan

[ C/U ]

If something goes according to plan, it happens the way you wanted it to:

[ U ] Producing a new movie rarely goes exactly according to plan.

plan noun (MAP)

[ C ]

a drawing that shows the shape, size, and position of important details of a building or other structure, or of objects within it:

The floor plan showed us exactly where everyone’s office would be.

plan

verb

/plæn/

-nn-

plan verb (METHOD)

[ I/T ]

to think about and decide on a method for doing or achieving something:

[ + to infinitive ] She’s planning to visit her sister in Australia next year.

[ I always + adv/prep ] He planned on taking his vacation in July.

[ I always + adv/prep ] You’ve got to plan ahead and save your money for your retirement.

(Definition of plan from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

plan | Business English

plan

noun [ C ]

/plæn/ us

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[ C ]

a set of actions that are intended to achieve a specific aim:

a plan/plans to do sth The government has launched a $935m plan to create jobs.

a plan/plans for sth Plans for a share buyback are expected to be unveiled later this week.

have plans/no plans to do sth A representative of the bank said it had no plans to make further cuts in its bonus rates.

under a plan A further 2,500 job cuts are planned for this year under a plan to save €1.3bn in costs.

a strategic/financial/marketing plan Operations that do not fit the firm's overall strategic plan are currently being sold off.

a restructuring/spending/recovery plan

an ambitious/controversial plan

immediate/long-term/future plans

a three-phase/five-point/ten-year plan

have/come up with/draw up a plan You will need to have a plan to cover start-up expenses while you grow your business.

announce/unveil/reveal a plan The telecommunications giant yesterday announced a restructuring plan.

outline/formulate/finalize a plan Over the next few months, the board will finalize its plans for meeting the 2020 mandate on carbon dioxide emissions.

abandon/shelve/scrap a plan Plans to expand into Spain and Portugal were shelved during the recession last year.

keep to/stick to/follow a plan By sticking to our original plan, we finally made a success of the business.

approve/back/support a plan Ministers meeting in Brussels approved a plan to refinance the project.

agree/adopt/implement a plan Get your team around the table and agree a plan of action to give more attention to detail.

oppose/reject a plan

go ahead/press ahead/proceed with a plan

a plan involves/includes sth A new €30 million investment plan announced Friday includes the construction of new plants.

a plan fails/succeeds Plans to reassure investors failed and shares slipped 3%.

an idea about what you may do in the future:

What are your plans after you graduate from college?

a plan/plans for sth You need to sit down and think about your plans for retirement.

sb's plan is to do sth Their plan is to cut income tax for the lower paid.

FINANCE

a financial arrangement in which someone regularly saves or invests money:

a retirement/investment/savings plan

a detailed drawing or diagram of a machine or building that shows the different parts, rooms, etc., including their size and shape:

A team of architects drew up plans for the new office building.

a drawing of a room or other area that shows the position or arrangement of things inside it:

a floor/seating plan

Phrasal verb

plan sth out

(Definition of plan from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of plan

plan

Section 1 reviews the relevant literature on retirement plans and saving, education and saving, and behavioral economics.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On average, comfort care plans were put in place 9 days prior to death.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the basis of these ethnographic and clinical data, the current study was planned.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the stop-signal task, this tone indicated that the planned response to the grating should be withheld.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There was evidence that patients were exposed to the planned intervention.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To the extent that conversations are implicitly expected or planned to co-occur with dinners, coffee breaks, or other scheduled activities, they are also temporally constrained.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Works that were centrally planned and assigned, moreover, had a better chance of seeing print than did books written on personal initiative.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Demonstration of these improvements is planned for the near future.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The third approach uses planning effects on task performance to investigate how learners monitor their language.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Templates provide stricter control over the surface form of the resulting clauses than do clause plans.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Using this medium, we originally planned to provide a sound treatment of side-effects that would be more effective than systematic residualization.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When planning a mapping, one must take this into account: an instrument is interesting only if it allows the discovery of unknown features.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The working plans included construction of forest access roads at fairly high labour cost.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The firm determines its production plans to maximize its profit.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, they soon were forced to abandon these plans after running into a powerful barrage of criticism.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of plan

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with plan

plan

These are words often used in combination with plan.

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alternative plan

This approach provides an equivalent basis upon which to evaluate how alternative plan types and features influence a program's perceived value to employees.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

ambitious plan

Figure 4 illustrates this ambitious plan for export promotion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

announced plan

As for the new road map, we welcome the fact that at least an effort is being made in terms of an announced plan.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

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What is the pronunciation of plan?