Skip to main content
planning

planning

507 2.2
To think ahead and decide what to do to prepare for something
  • noun
  • /ˈplænɪŋ/
translation icon : planificación
  • Good planning helps to avoid last-minute stress and ensures everything is ready on time.
  • lesson planning
  • strategic planning
  • urban planning

I guess it's a year in the planning, you know, of this.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The researchers used this knowledge to include both tribes in the planning of the project.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The framework has two major phases: the planning phase and the implementation phase.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I just get really bad at planning things for myself.

  • A little planning can go a long way.

  • We're still in the planning stages, basically.

  • Well, it's not my firm, but the firm that I work for, we actually do something called estate planning.

  • Careful money management and prudent planning allowed many extended families to create considerable wealth.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Curricula containing career education and future career planning opportunities are deemed more relevant and valuable to students.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I have also learned the importance of planning and preparation, which helps when you're having difficult conversations.

    Academic text (2011)
  • After all our careful planning, the many years of meticulous research and experimentation, our dream is finally at hand.

Synonyms

design
vsplanning
942 2.8

A plan or drawing that shows how something will look and work

is the overall process of thinking ahead and making arrangements
preparation
vsplanning
343 1.9

Making something ready for an event, activity, or use

leans more toward thinking and arranging rather than physical readiness
programming
vsplanning
153 3.4

Organizing planned events by deciding their order and times

is more general, including choice-making and other preparatory steps
scheduling
vsplanning
47 2.8

A plan that shows when tasks or events happen

covers arranging and deciding broadly, not only exact timing and order
calculation
vsplanning
47 3.5

Careful planning of actions to get a particular result

is wider, also covering simple arrangements and general advance thinking
provision
vsplanning
34 4.3

A plan to meet needs in the future

is broader, covering thinking and arranging as well as resource steps
premeditation
vsplanning
  • Formal
21 7.9

Planning to do something, especially a crime, before you do it

is general forward thinking and arranging without criminal intent focus
forethought
vsplanning
10 5.5

Careful planning for the future to avoid problems

includes both thinking ahead and making concrete arrangements
devising
vsplanning
2 4.2

Careful planning to make a new idea or way to do something

is more general, also covering routine arrangements and readiness
preplanning
vsplanning
1 3.5

Making things ready before an event or activity

covers making arrangements and decisions as a general forward process
designing
vsplanning
1 3.9

The process of planning and making the shape and parts of something

is broader, applying to many types of advance arranging and decisions
readying
vsplanning
1 3.4

The act of doing things before an event so it can happen

focuses more on thinking and arranging before readiness actions occur
prospection
vsplanning
  • Specialized
8.3

To imagine and plan for the future

focuses equally on arranging and deciding ahead for future events
lookahead
vsplanning
5.5

Thinking about future needs to plan and avoid problems

adds formal arranging and decision making beyond mere consideration

Antonyms

7 3.8

A lack of order or system that makes things untidy

Compounds

To choose how many children to have and when, usually using birth control

urban planning
  • Specialized
7 3.9

Designing and arranging buildings, roads, and public spaces in cities and towns

5 3.9

A group of people who make plans and decisions about how a town or city grows

city planning
  • Specialized
3 3.3

Designing and managing how buildings, roads, and public spaces are placed in a city

1 3.6

Deciding where roads, houses, and shops go in towns and cities

1 4.8

A way to avoid pregnancy by not having sex during a woman's fertile days, without using medicine or devices

1 3.8

A group of local officials who advise and approve plans for land and buildings

A natural way to avoid pregnancy by checking a woman's daily morning temperature to find days she can get pregnant

A square wooden tool archaeologists use to map objects at a dig site

A way to find a woman's fertile days by watching changes in cervical mucus

planning frame
  • Specialized
7.7

A square wooden frame archaeologists use to draw and measure features at a site

How Thorough

strategic
519 4.9
planning
507 2.2
plan
1.0
ad hoc
9 7.0

Surface Forms

planning singular
plannings plural

Morphology

planning = plan (transparent) = plan + ing

The noun is a regular -ing nominalization of the verb 'plan' and its meaning is directly derived from 'plan'.

Etymology

Planning comes from the noun plan, which originally meant a 'map' or drawing on a flat surface from the old Latin word planus meaning 'flat'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of a plan as a map you make before you act, so planning is making steps and choices ahead of time.