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plane

1 [pleyn]

noun, adjective, verb, planed, plan⋅ing.

–noun

1.	a flat or level surface.

2.	Geometry. a surface generated by a straight line moving at a constant velocity with respect to a fixed point.

3.	Fine Arts. an area of a two-dimensional surface having determinate extension and spatial direction or position: oblique plane; horizontal plane.

4.	a level of dignity, character, existence, development, or the like: a high moral plane.

Aeronautics.

a.	an airplane or a hydroplane: to take a plane to Dallas.

b.	a thin, flat or curved, extended section of an airplane or a hydroplane, affording a supporting surface.

6.	Architecture. a longitudinal section through the axis of a column.

–adjective

7.	flat or level, as a surface.

8.	of or pertaining to planes or plane figures.

–verb (used without object)

9.	to glide or soar.

10.	(of a boat) to rise partly out of the water when moving at high speed.

11.	Informal. to fly or travel in an airplane: We'll drive to Detroit and plane to Los Angeles.

Origin:
1400–50 for sense “to soar”; 1640–50 for n. and adj. senses; (n.) < L plānum flat surface (n. use of plānus flat); (adj.) < L plānus; first used to distinguish the geometrical senses formerly belonging to plain ¹ ; in def. 5, shortened form of airplane, aeroplane, or hydroplane; (v.) late ME planen (of a bird) to soar (cf. MF planer); akin to plain ¹

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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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plane

2 [pleyn]

noun, verb, planed, plan⋅ing.

–noun

1.	Carpentry. any of various woodworking instruments for paring, truing, or smoothing, or for forming moldings, chamfers, rabbets, grooves, etc., by means of an inclined, adjustable blade moved along and against the piece being worked.

2.	a trowellike tool for smoothing the surface of clay in a brick mold.

–verb (used with object)

3.	to smooth or dress with or as if with a plane or a planer.

4.	to remove by or as if by means of a plane (usually fol. by away or off).

–verb (used without object)

5.	to work with a plane.

6.	to function as a plane.

Origin:
1275–1325; (n.) ME (< MF) < LL plāna, deriv. of plānāre to smooth, itself deriv. of L plānus plain ¹ ; (v.) ME planen (< MF planer) < LL plānāre

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plane

3 [pleyn]

–noun

plane tree.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < MF < L platanus < Gk plátanos, deriv. of platýs broad, flat ¹ (with reference to the leaves)

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

plane¹ (plān) Pronunciation Key
n.

Mathematics A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it.
A flat or level surface.
A level of development, existence, or achievement: scholarship on a high plane.
An airplane or hydroplane.
A supporting surface of an airplane; an airfoil or wing.

adj.

Mathematics Of or being a figure lying in a plane: a plane curve.
Flat; level. See Synonyms at level.

[Latin plānum, flat surface, from neuter of plānus, flat; see pelə-² in Indo-European roots. N., sense 4, short for aeroplane.]
plane'ness n.

Word History: The plane in which we fly is properly named for a very important element of its structure—the wing that keeps it in the air. But the story behind this name is slightly complicated. To begin with, plane in the sense of "winged vehicle," first recorded in April 1908, is a shortened form of aeroplane. In June of that year plane appeared in a quotation from the London Times that mentioned one of the Wright brothers. Aeroplane, first recorded in 1866, is made up of the prefix aero-, "air, aviation," and the word plane, referring to the structure designed to keep an air vehicle aloft. Originally the plane in such contexts was imagined as flat, hence the choice of the word plane; in practice this surface must curve slightly in order to work. The word aeroplane for the vehicle is first found in 1873. The first recorded appearance of the form airplane in our current sense, which uses air- instead of aero-, is found in 1907. An American flies in an airplane while a Briton still travels in an aeroplane, but both can catch a plane.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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plane² (plān) Pronunciation Key
n.

A carpenter's tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing and leveling wood.
A trowel-shaped tool for smoothing the surface of clay, sand, or plaster in a mold.

v. planed, plan·ing, planes

v. tr.

To smooth or finish with or as if with a plane.
To remove with a plane: plane off the rough edges on a board.

v. intr.

To work with a plane.
To act as a plane.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin plāna, from plānāre, to plane, from plānus, flat; see pelə-² in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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plane³ (plān) Pronunciation Key
intr.v. planed, plan·ing, planes

To rise partly out of the water, as a hydroplane does at high speeds.
To soar or glide.
To travel by airplane.

[Middle English planen, to glide, soar, from Old French planer, from plain, flat, level; see plain.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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plane⁴ (plān) Pronunciation Key
n. The plane tree.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin platanus, from Greek platanos, perhaps from platus, broad; see plat- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
plane (1)

"flat surface," 1604, from L. plantum "flat surface," properly neut. of adj. planus "flat, level, plain, clear," from PIE *pla-no- (cf. Lith. plonas "thin;" Celtic *lanon "plain;" perhaps also Gk. pelanos "sacrificial cake, a mixture offered to the gods, offering (of meal, honey, and oil) poured or spread"), suffixed form of base *pele- "to spread out, broad, flat" (cf. O.C.S. polje "flat land, field," Rus. polyi "open;" O.E., O.H.G. feld, M.Du. veld "field"). Fig. sense is attested from 1850. The verb meaning "soar, glide on motionless wings" is first recorded 1611, from M.Fr. planer (16c.), from L. planum on notion of bird gliding with flattened wings. Of boats, etc., "to skim over the surface of water" it is first found 1913.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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plane (2)

1908, short for aeroplane (see airplane).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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plane (3)

"tool for smoothing surfaces," 1349, from O.Fr. plane, earlier plaine (14c.), from L.L. plana, from planare "make level," from L. planus "level, flat" (see plane (1)). The verb meaning "to make smooth" is c.1320, from O.Fr. planer (12c.), from L.L. planare.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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plane (4)

"tree of the genus Platanus," 1382, from O.Fr. plane, earlier plasne (14c.), from L. platanus, from Gk. platanos, earlier platanistos "plane tree," a species from Asia Minor, associated with platys "broad," in reference to its leaves (see place (n.)). Applied since 1778 in Scotland and northern England to the sycamore, whose leaves somewhat resemble those of the true plane tree.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

plane
adjective
1.	having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another; "a flat desk"; "acres of level farmland"; "a plane surface"; "skirts sewn with fine flat seams" [syn: flat]
noun
1.	an aircraft that has a fixed wing and is powered by propellers or jets; "the flight was delayed due to trouble with the airplane" [syn: airplane]
2.	(mathematics) an unbounded two-dimensional shape; "we will refer to the plane of the graph as the X-Y plane"; "any line joining two points on a plane lies wholly on that plane"
3.	a level of existence or development; "he lived on a worldly plane"
4.	a power tool for smoothing or shaping wood
5.	a carpenter's hand tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing or shaping wood; "the cabinetmaker used a plane for the finish work"
verb
1.	cut or remove with or as if with a plane; "The machine shaved off fine layers from the piece of wood"
2.	travel on the surface of water
3.	make even or smooth, with or as with a carpenter's plane; "plane the top of the door"

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

plane (plān) Pronunciation Key
Noun

A two-dimensional surface, any two of whose points can be joined by a straight line that lies entirely in the surface.

Adjective

Lying in a plane: a plane curve.

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Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
plane

A geometrical location having only two dimensions — length and width (no height). (See coordinates and plane geometry.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
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American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

plane ¹ (plān)
n.

A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it.
A flat or level surface.
An imaginary surface formed by extension through any axis of the body or through two definite points on the body.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: plane
Pronunciation: 'plAn
Function: noun
1 a : a surface that contains at least three points not all in a straight line and is such thata line drawn through any two points in it lies wholly in the surface b : an imaginary plane used to identify parts of the body or a part of the skull —see FRANKFORT HORIZONTAL PLANE, MIDSAGITTALPLANE
2 : a stage in surgical anesthesia plane of anesthesia is maintained with cyclopropane —Journal of the American MedicalAssociation>

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Plane

Plane\, v. i. Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Plane

Plane\, n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. ?, fr. ? broad; -- so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form. See Place, and cf. Platane, Plantain the tree.] (Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus.

Note: The Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a native of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental plane (Platanus occidentalis), which grows to a great height, is a native of North America, where it is popularly called sycamore, buttonwood, and buttonball, names also applied to the California species (Platanus racemosa).

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Plane

Plane\, a. [L. planus: cf. F. plan. See Plan, a.] Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface.

Note: In science, this word (instead of plain) is almost exclusively used to designate a flat or level surface.

Plane angle, the angle included between two straight lines in a plane.

Plane chart, Plane curve. See under Chart and Curve.

Plane figure, a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure.

Plane geometry, that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures.

Plane problem, a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only.

Plane sailing (Naut.), the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane.

Plane scale (Naut.), a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc.

Plane surveying, surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent.

Plane table, an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field.

Plane trigonometry, the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles.

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Plane

Plane\, n. [F. plane, L. plana. See Plane, v. & a.]

1. (Geom.) A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.

2. (Astron.) An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.

3. (Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.

4. (Joinery) A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc.

Objective plane (Surv.), the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand.

Perspective plane. See Perspective.

Plane at infinity (Geom.), a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated.

Plane iron, the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane.

Plane of polarization. (Opt.) See Polarization.

Plane of projection. (a) The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; -- called also principal plane. (b) (Descriptive Geom.) One of the planes to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position in space.

Plane of refraction or reflection (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

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Plane

Plane\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Planed; p. pr. & vb. n. Planing.] [Cf. F. planer, L. planare, fr. planus. See Plane, a., Plain, a., and cf. Planish.]

1. To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, to plane a plank.

2. To efface or remove.

He planed away the names . . . written on his tables. --Chaucer.

3. Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. [R.]

What student came but that you planed her path. --Tennyson.