blueprint

American  

[bloo-print] / ˈbluˌprɪnt /

noun

• blueprints
  plural

1. a process of photographic printing, used chiefly in copying architectural and mechanical drawings, which produces a white line on a blue background.

2. a print made by this process.

3. a detailed outline or plan of action.

   a blueprint for success.

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verb (used with object)

• blueprints,
  present (3rd person singular)
• blueprinted,
  past participle,  past
• blueprinting
  present participle

1. to make a blueprint of or for.

blueprint British  

/ ˈbluːˌprɪnt /

noun

1. Also called: cyanotype. a photographic print of plans, technical drawings, etc, consisting of white lines on a blue background

2. an original plan or prototype that influences subsequent design or practice

   the Montessori method was the blueprint for education in the 1940s

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verb

1. (tr) to make a blueprint of (a plan)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• blueprinter
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• blueprints
  plural

Participles

• blueprinting
  present
• blueprinted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• blueprint
  simple
• blueprints
  simple
• have blueprinted
  perfect
• has blueprinted
  perfect
• am blueprinting
  progressive
• are blueprinting
  progressive
• is blueprinting
  progressive
• have been blueprinting
  perfect progressive
• has been blueprinting
  perfect progressive

Past

• blueprinted
  simple
• had blueprinted
  perfect
• was blueprinting
  progressive
• were blueprinting
  progressive
• had been blueprinting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will blueprint
  simple
• will have blueprinted
  perfect
• will be blueprinting
  progressive
• will have been blueprinting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of blueprint

First recorded in 1885–90; blue + print

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Explanation

A blueprint is a guide for making something — it's a design or pattern that can be followed. Want to build the best tree house ever? Draw up a blueprint and follow the design carefully. The literal meaning of a blueprint is a paper — which is blue — with plans for a building printed on it. You can also call other guides or plans blueprints. The way you do your homework every night could provide a blueprint for your little sister’s study habits. A business plan is a blueprint for a profitable business. Religions and philosophies provide the blueprint for many people’s lives. A blueprint helps you figure out what to do.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

blueprint blueprints blueprinted blueprinting

The blueprint advocated making the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, a unit of the government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the “primary institution” for U.S. regulatory oversight of AI.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

The rack will support agentic AI, AMD said, and the blueprint is open, meaning the company’s ecosystem partners can further develop and adopt the hardware and software.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

"Our work provides a blueprint for designing better materials that can bring down the cost of green hydrogen," said Stylianou, who directs OSU's Materials Discovery Laboratory, known as the MaD Lab.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

The shift set them apart across Asia and helped establish the blueprint for modern self-produced acts such as BTS.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Does each termite possess a fragment of blueprint, or is the whole design, arch by arch, encoded in his DNA?

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

The group has been drawing up blueprints for a Cuban stock exchange and an investment summit in Havana.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

It includes an architectural model and original blueprints of the Integratron, as well as nearly 630 photographs, negatives and slides, more than 250 audio recordings, 8-millimeter film footage, books, publications and other records and ephemera.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

The blueprints will allow Ukraine to produce the long-range weapon domestically.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Working with the city, the architects also drafted housing blueprints for vacant lots that any builder can use to speed construction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

In a cabinet, Chandresh finds piles of blueprints and sketches.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

The National Guard's Special Immediate Reaction Force blueprinted the operation for the assault on Sunday with both land and air maneuvers.

From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026

“Marquee Moon” is both architectonic and disorienting, blueprinted and unpredictable.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2023

Many of the songs we do are blueprinted on both sides of the Atlantic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2022

It’s not merely the stratospheric box-office expectations, but also the need – under the cinematic-universe model blueprinted by Marvel – for each film to fit the aesthetic and actors into a larger whole.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 15, 2017

Presumably it was not thought out and blueprinted in advance but worked out by trial and error, episode by episode, step by step—perhaps, also, leap by leap.

From Civilization and Beyond Learning from History by Scott Nearing

Herschel called the technique cyanotyping, but it is better known today as blueprinting.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 29, 2021

For the coalition of local officials, businesses and nonprofits leading the way, the blueprinting of the city presents an intensely varied task.

From Forbes ● May 19, 2015

Boss Engineer Luke Hobbs was also blueprinting the designs for a different type.

From Time Magazine Archive

In return it has every intention of blueprinting the peace.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the 1930s he deeply influenced today's theater design by blueprinting expandable stages and semicircular projection screens.

From Time Magazine Archive

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Related Words

• draft
• game plan
• master plan
• model
• prototype
• scheme
• sketch

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