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

Etymology

Origin of blueprint

First recorded in 1885–90; blue + print

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

In the Augarten park, new public toilets opened in 2025 provide a possible blueprint for the future.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 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

The findings therefore provide a general blueprint for building many future quantum materials, rather than offering only one isolated discovery.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026

Equally significant, the bill offers a viable blueprint for immigration reform—one that may be achievable after the midterm elections.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

My father’s faith in this blueprint was unshakable.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

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

U.S. and allied military planners, meanwhile, have spent months conferring on new blueprints for their combined force structures in Europe, under which the U.S. would reduce its nonnuclear deployments and Europeans would gradually fill gaps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

Gehry bequeathed blueprints and models, sketches and concepts, for his large and devoted team of younger architects and next-generation visionaries equipped to fabricate our way out of angst.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026

All the money Baba had spent, all those nights he’d sweated over the blueprints, all the visits to the construction site to make sure every brick, every beam, and every block was laid just right...

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

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

Hank, get these plans blueprinted and assign an electronics group to the project.

From Tom Swift and The Visitor from Planet X by Victor [pseud.] Appleton

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

Said he of the blueprinting: "Somehow we did in three weeks what nobody can do in less than four months."

From Time Magazine Archive

A few, like Douglas and Lockheed, have talked of blueprinting a model.

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

Related Words

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