blueprint
Americannoun
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blueprints
plural
verb (used with object)
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blueprints,
present (3rd person singular)
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blueprinted,
past participle, past
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blueprinting
present participle
noun
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Also called: cyanotype. a photographic print of plans, technical drawings, etc, consisting of white lines on a blue background
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an original plan or prototype that influences subsequent design or practice
the Montessori method was the blueprint for education in the 1940s
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blueprintsimple
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blueprintssimple
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have blueprintedperfect
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has blueprintedperfect
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am blueprintingprogressive
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are blueprintingprogressive
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is blueprintingprogressive
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have been blueprintingperfect progressive
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has been blueprintingperfect progressive
Past
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blueprintedsimple
-
had blueprintedperfect
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was blueprintingprogressive
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were blueprintingprogressive
-
had been blueprintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blueprint
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.
Vocabulary lists containing blueprint
The Ingenious Lexicon of Invention
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But as depressing as that may be, “The End of Oak Street” could very well be a blueprint for a fresh era in popcorn movies.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
“Having kind of done that — an inning here, an inning there and then you sort of build up during the season, absolutely,” said Roberts when asked if 2025 could serve as a blueprint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Joao Pedro also continued his fine pre-season form with a double as manager Xabi Alonso offered a glimpse of what could be his blueprint for the season.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
In the Augarten park, new public toilets opened in 2025 provide a possible blueprint for the future.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
The preceding paragraph gave examples of blueprint copying, whereas the transfer of Chinese porcelain technology to Europe provides an instance of long-drawn-out idea diffusion.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Despite AI companies’ protests, it appears that AI’s blueprints are about as hard to contain as those from our previous industrial revolutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Instead of manufacturing the processors themselves, Arm designs the blueprints and licenses its intellectual property to tech companies.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Reports claim that some workers did not bring mandatory tracking devices into the mines, and blueprints provided by the Liushenyu coal mine to authorities did not match the conditions at the mine, complicating rescue efforts.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
And not just switching, but offering the orcs blueprints of the castle and giving them magic items he stole from his friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026
Claire’s office, by the looks of the blueprints, fabric samples, and design books.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
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
In the 1930s he deeply influenced today's theater design by blueprinting expandable stages and semicircular projection screens.
From Time Magazine Archive
They are blueprinting airplane factories and plush government offices.
From Time Magazine Archive
In return it has every intention of blueprinting the peace.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
