blueprint

noun

blue·​print ˈblü-ˌprint 

plural blueprints

1

: a photographic print in white on a bright blue ground or blue on a white ground used especially for copying maps, mechanical drawings, and architects' plans

2

: something or someone resembling a blueprint (as in serving as a model or providing guidance)

… few foundations have taken a similar [investing] route, so there was no blueprint to follow.

—Paul Sullivan

He was an anomaly to the rap world when he arrived, but today he is the blueprint for a generation.

—Jeff Ihaza

especially : a detailed plan or program of action

a blueprint for success

blueprint transitive verb

blueprinted; blueprinting; blueprints

It was not something blueprinted from the start or based on a French bistro archetype; it's a restaurant that has grown and evolved …

—Ian McNulty

Synonyms

• arrangement
• design
• game
• game plan
• ground plan
• master plan
• plan
• program
• project
• road map
• scheme
• strategy
• system

Examples of blueprint in a Sentence

a blueprint for reforming the public school system

an ambitious young man with a remarkably detailed blueprint for becoming a millionaire by the age of 25

Recent Examples on the Web

But he's given congressional Republicans a blueprint for what's possible to cut. —Hans Nichols, Axios, 11 Feb. 2025

The blueprint for Elkhart, Indiana, included remaking a neighborhood where low-income residents had been displaced by a highway, and turning one of the Rust Belt’s many brownfields—former industrial locations—into a park. —Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025

Lawyers representing The San Diego Union-Tribune and other news organizations said the majority opinion lays out a blueprint that would allow the sheriff and other government officials to withhold records from the public going forward. —Kelly Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Feb. 2025

Hoping to execute the same blueprint that built UFC, White, the Fertittas and Piligian each invested around $1 million in late 2022 to found Power Slap, a league in which contestants take turns open-hand slapping each other into oblivion. —Matt Craig, Forbes, 6 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1857, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

blueprint

1 of 2 noun

blue·​print

ˈblü-ˌprint

1

: a photographic print made with white lines on a blue background and used especially for copying mechanical drawings, maps, and architects' plans

2

: a detailed plan or program of action

blueprint

2 of 2 verb

: to make a blueprint of or for