layout

American  

[ley-out] / ˈleɪˌaʊt /

noun

• layouts
  plural

1. an arrangement or plan.

   We objected to the layout of the house.

2. the act of laying or spreading out.

3. a plan or sketch, as of an advertisement or a page of a newspaper or magazine, indicating the arrangement and relationship of the parts, as of type and artwork.

4. (in advertising, publishing, etc.) the technique, process, or occupation of making layouts.

5. Journalism. spread.

6. Informal. a place, as of residence or business, and the features that go with it; a setup.

   a fancy layout with a swimming pool and a tennis court.

7. Informal. a display or spread, as of dishes at a meal.

8. a collection or set of tools, implements, or the like.

9. Cards. an arrangement of cards dealt according to a given pattern, as in solitaire.

10. Diving, Gymnastics. a body position in which one is fully extended and arched backward, with the legs together and straight, the head thrown back, and the arms extended sideways.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• layouts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of layout

1840–50, noun use of verb phrase lay out

Explanation

A layout is a plan or design, like the odd layout of your friend's house, where you have to walk through two bedrooms to get to the bathroom. Anything that's planned on paper and then constructed in three dimensions has a layout, including houses, buildings, cities, parks, and gardens. Newspapers, magazines, and websites have layouts too: the way words and images are organized together on the page. The verb came first, from the sense of laying out or arranging the letters of a manuscript before printing them.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

layout layouts

The layout includes a sitting room and an office space that could also be used as an additional bedroom.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

Details of the process due to begin Saturday, including location, agenda and layout, have not been disclosed other than the talks will be held in the capital Caracas.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

In closed-door sessions each quarter, JetZero’s team preaches to specialists from those airlines about specific elements of the aircraft, such as cabin layout, flight controls and cargo doors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

Heatable estimates it to be between £5,000 and £10,000, depending on the property size, layout and how complex the ductwork needs to be.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

After two days of labor, workers and students were halfway through clearing off the top platform and the staircases leading to it; the layout of the structure was visible enough to map.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

"The layouts and the proportions and views really came directly from the architecture rather than from how we generally would start planning a building from the ground up."

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

On top of that, certain circuit layouts lend themselves to strategic use of the battery.

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

The companies said at the time they had picked the U.K. capital because of its significantly different road layouts and traffic laws compared with U.S. locations, where most testing had been conducted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

Home tasks are tougher, as layouts and tasks are more varied and messy.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026

These delightfully proportioned amusements would therefore need all the help they could get from formal blueprints like Sonata Form, and from musical versions of the balanced layouts of Capability Brown’s gardens, or Robert Adam’s buildings.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• blueprint
• chart
• design
• geography
• map