plane

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See also: Plane, Pläne, plané, plañe, pláne, and pláně

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Latin plānum (flat surface), a noun use of the neuter of plānus (plain). The word was introduced in the 17th century to distinguish the geometrical senses from the other senses of plain. Doublet of llano, piano, and plain.

Adjective

plane (comparative planer, superlative planest)

  1. Of a surface: flat or level.
Translations

Noun

plane (plural planes)

  1. A level or flat surface.
  2. (geometry) A flat surface extending infinitely in all directions (e.g. horizontal or vertical plane); a bounded portion thereof.
    • 1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 396:
      Mirrors in the compartments have been canted out of the vertical plane to reduce reflections to the passengers when seated.
    1. (anatomy) An imaginary plane which divides the body into two portions.
  3. A level of existence or development.
    • 1982 December 4, Catherine Joseph, “Empowered into Enlightenment”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 8:
      Nettie's stories about her experiences in Africa point out many parallels between the African and American ways of life. Her stories about the African lifestyle and family structure, in particular, point out the sexist and oppressive conditions that women are forced to submit to on a global plane.
  4. 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.
    Hyponyms: airfoil, hydrofoil, wing, foreplane, canard, tailplane, stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer
  5. (computing, Unicode) Any of 17 designated ranges of 216 (65,536) sequential code points each.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Irish: plána
Translations

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

From Middle English plane, plaine, from Anglo-Norman plaine, from Late Latin plāna (planing tool).

Noun

a rebate plane

plane (plural planes)

  1. (countable, carpentry) A tool for smoothing wood by removing thin layers from the surface.
Translations
See also

Verb

plane (third-person singular simple present planes, present participle planing, simple past and past participle planed)

  1. (transitive, carpentry) To smooth (wood) with a plane.
Translations

Etymology 3

Clipping of aeroplane.

Alternative forms

Noun

plane (plural planes)

  1. (aircraft) An airplane; an aeroplane.
    • 2013 September 6, Tom Cheshire, “Solar-powered travel”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 34:
      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.
  2. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies, of various genera, having a slow gliding flight.
    Synonym: aeroplane
  3. (entomology) The butterfly Bindahara phocides, family Lycaenidae, of Asia and Australasia.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

Three PT boats planing, with their bows lifted out of the water.

plane (third-person singular simple present planes, present participle planing, simple past and past participle planed)

  1. (nautical, of a boat) To move in a way that lifts the bow out of the water.
  2. To glide or soar.
Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English plane, borrowed from Old French plane, from Latin platanus, from Ancient Greek πλάτανος (plátanos), from πλατύς (platús, wide, broad).

Noun

plane (plural planes)

  1. (countable) A deciduous tree of the genus Platanus.
  2. (Northern UK) A sycamore.
Derived terms
Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Czech

Pronunciation

Verb

plane

  1. third-person singular present of planout

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

plane

  1. feminine singular of plan

Verb

plane

  1. inflection of planer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

Verb

plane

  1. inflection of planen:
    1. first-person singular present
    2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
    3. singular imperative

Latin

Etymology

From plānus (intelligible, clear).

Pronunciation

Adverb

plānē (comparative plānius, superlative plānissimē)

  1. plainly (to the senses or understanding), distinctly, intelligibly
  2. (emphasising correctness) clearly, obviously
    1. (also used as an affirmative answer)
  3. wholly, utterly, thoroughly, quite

Descendants

References

Further reading

  • plane”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • plane”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • plane in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • plane in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to speak openly, straightforwardly: plane, aperte dicere
    • to banish all sad thoughts: omnem luctum plane abstergere

Anagrams

Lithuanian

Noun

plane m

  1. locative singular of planas

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

plane

  1. definite singular of plan
  2. plural of plan

Portuguese

Verb

plane

  1. inflection of planar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Swedish

Adjective

plane

  1. definite natural masculine singular of plan

Anagrams