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
-
are blueprintingprogressive
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is blueprintingprogressive
-
have been blueprintingperfect progressive
-
has been blueprintingperfect progressive
Past
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blueprintedsimple
-
had blueprintedperfect
-
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:
"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 chefs at the festival weren’t offering a single blueprint for how to accomplish that.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 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
Basically, punk is like a blueprint for people to find their own individuality.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
It is only a step from a drawing such as this to a modern blueprint.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Even with the blueprints, Ukraine may find it hard to source components.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 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
Trump walked part of the property and inspected blueprints in view of reporters; he was then driven by the site where he wants to erect a marble arch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 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
Powell got up and dusted himself, “Hmph. All right. Take away the blueprints and burn them.”
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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
They are blueprinting airplane factories and plush government offices.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since 1962, the Monitor, which is never one to rush things, has been blueprinting a self-improvement program calculated to restore the paper's waning market.
From Time Magazine Archive
That was successful, so he went to work blueprinting a new locomotive.
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.
