What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Plan vs Plane - What's the difference?

plan | plane |

In transitive terms the difference between plan and plane

is that plan is to create a plan for while plane is to smooth (wood) with a plane.

As a proper noun PLAN

is the People's Liberation Army Navy.

As an adjective plane is

of a surface: flat or level.

plan

English

Noun

(en 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, usually mutually related, 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 two-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.
  • A method; a way of procedure; a custom.
  • * Wordsworth
  • The simple plan , / That they should take who have the power, / And they should keep who can.

    Usage notes

    * A plan ("set of intended actions") can be developed, executed, implemented, ignored, abandoned, scrapped, changed, etc.

    Synonyms

    * (drawing of a building from above): floor plan

    Derived terms

    * battleplan * floor plan * business plan * development plan * marketing plan * masterplan * game plan * contingency plan * action plan * escalation plan * lesson plan * plan A * plan B * price plan * rate plan

    Verb

    (plann)
  • To design (a building, machine, etc.).
  • To create a plan for.
  • To intend.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}
  • See plan on.
  • To make a plan.
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Derived terms

    * planner * plan on * plan out

    Statistics

    *

    plane

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . The word was introduced in the seventeenth century to distinguish the geometrical senses from the other senses of plain.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Of a surface: flat or level.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A level or flat surface.
  • (geometry) A flat surface extending infinitely in all directions (e.g. horizontal or vertical plane).
  • A level of existence or development. (eg'', ''astral plane )
  • A roughly flat, thin, often moveable structure used to create lateral force by the flow of air or water over its surface, found on aircraft, submarines, etc.
  • (computing, Unicode) Any of a number of designated ranges of sequential code points.
  • (anatomy) An imaginary plane which divides the body into two portions.
  • Hyponyms
    * (mathematics) real plane, complex plane * (anatomy) coronal plane, frontal plane, sagittal plane, transverse plane
    Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl), from (etyl), from

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) A tool for smoothing wood by removing thin layers from the surface.
  • See also
    * rhykenologist

    Verb

    (plan)
  • To smooth (wood) with a plane.
  • Etymology 3

    Abbreviated from aeroplane .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An airplane; an aeroplane.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-06, author=Tom Cheshire
  • , volume=189, issue=13, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Solar-powered travel , passage=The plane is travelling impossibly slowly – 30km an hour – when it gently noses up and leaves the ground. With air beneath them, the rangy wings seem to gain strength; the fuselage that on the ground seemed flimsy becomes elegant, like a crane vaunting in flight. It seems not to fly, though, so much as float.}}
    Derived terms
    * floatplane * planeside * planespotter/plane spotter/plane-spotter * plane spotting * seaplane

    Verb

    (plan)
  • (nautical) To move in a way that lifts the bow of a boat out of the water.
  • To glide or soar.
  • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) plane, from (etyl) platanus, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (senseid)(countable) A deciduous tree of the genus Platanus .
  • (Northern UK) A sycamore.
  • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Anagrams

    *