design

di-ZYN/dɪˈzaɪn/

Verbdesigns, designing, designed

Noun pluraldesigns

11 meanings of design

Practice

1
create with a goalverbusually passivetransitive
To devise or produce something aimed at a specific purpose, function or group of people.
The loan program was designed to help small businesses reopen after the hurricane.
Architects now design most public buildings with wheelchair users in mind.
UsageDesigned to + verb says what it should do; designed for names its users or use; also designed with someone in mind.
Similardevise, create, develop
2
appearancenouncountable or uncountable
The way something has been planned and made, including its shape, its look and the arrangement of its parts.
The chair's elegant design drew attention at the furniture fair.
Shoppers praised the bottle's design for its smooth, modern shape.
Note
This is the look and shape of a thing, and a design is often described by the style it follows, using after. Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1963) describes a block of council dwellings whose design "was some way after Corbusier." In other words, it followed his style at a distance. The construction suits buildings and objects alike. A design can be after a master, a period or a movement.
3
verbtransitive
To work out in advance the shape, look, and workings of a particular thing that is to be built or made, usually in drawings or plans.
The team designed a bridge capable of withstanding strong earthquakes.
Architects design buildings that respond to their surroundings.
Note
Making things is the modern core, yet the verb has long reached beyond objects. Sheridan Le Fanu's The House by the Churchyard (1863) has a woman who "designed his retirement" from the artillery, arranging a career as one might plan a building. Margery Allingham pairs it with manufacture, describing furniture "designed and made," which keeps the planning and the building as two separate steps.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Sheridan Le Fanu wrote The House by the Churchyard. celt.ucc.ie
1863 is the novel's first book-publication year; it had previously begun appearing serially in 1861. celt.ucc.ie
The novel's narrator describes a woman planning a man's retirement from the artillery and arranging his subsequent career, using the exact words 'designed his retirement'. gutenberg.org
Margery Allingham's narration describes furniture as 'designed and made', in The China Governess. fadedpage.com
4
creative fieldnoununcountable
The practice or skill of planning how objects, images, or systems look and function.
He built a career in design after years of training.
Modern design blends beauty with usefulness.
UsageOften with a field in front: graphic design, furniture design. No article for the field: she studied design.
5
plan drawingnouncountable
A plan or drawing that shows how a building, object or system will be made and will work, often setting out what it must do.
The architect presented a design for the museum that balanced open space with structural strength.
Before work could begin, the engineers had to submit their design for the bridge to the city for approval.
UsageUsually a design for something: submit a design for the bridge.
6
patternnouncountable
A pattern that forms an element of a work of art or a building.
Intricate designs covered the temple's stone walls.
The potter pressed a spiral design into the wet clay.
Similarpattern, motif, decoration, figure, ornament
7
deliberate aimnouncountable or uncountable
A purpose or plan, especially a deliberate intention to bring something about.
The collapse was no accident but the result of careful design.
Everything unfolded according to his design.
UsageMostly by design, meaning on purpose, the opposite of by accident; also according to someone's design.
Similarintention, purpose, plan, intent
Oppositeaccident, chance, coincidence
Note
In eighteenth-century prose the noun carried intention with no sinister shade. Le Page du Pratz's History of Louisiana (1763) offers a gift "without any other design than to shew" goodwill. The plural has its own idiom: to have designs on winning the league is simply to aim at it.

Less common meanings

8
plot to harmnounusually plural
A hostile or underhand intention toward someone or something, often a scheme to harm them or take what is theirs.
He harbored designs on his rival's fortune.
Their friendly smiles concealed a darker design.
UsageMost often plural: have designs on someone or something, or evil designs.
Similarscheme, plot, intrigue, conspiracy, machination
Note
This sense develops the neutral sense of intention into a dishonest or hostile scheme. Context establishes the negative meaning: evil designs clearly suggests malice, while have designs on can also express an ordinary ambition. A bare design can still mean an innocent purpose.
9
intendverbarchaicintransitive
To intend or plan to do something.
Similarintend, plan
Note
An old way of saying intend, followed by a to-infinitive: the king designed to mount an expedition. Modern English uses plan to or intend to instead. Readers will meet this construction in older prose and in historical pastiche, and it reads naturally there. In present-day writing it sounds like a deliberate period touch, so use it only when that effect is wanted.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Historically, design could mean intend or plan and take a to-infinitive. en.wiktionary.org
10
verbobsoletetransitive
To assign or appoint something to a person; to designate someone for a role.
He was designed to the study of the law.
1700, John Dryden, Translations from Ovid's Epistles
he looks not below the Moon, but hath designed the regiment of sublunary affairs unto inferiour deputations.
1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica
Note
A use that has dropped out of English. Its doublet designate, from the same Latin root, still does this work. The construction was to design something to or unto someone, and in the passive a person was designed to a calling: Dryden writes in 1680 that a man "was designed to the study of the law." Modern prose would say assigned or appointed, so keep this use for evoking older writing.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Design and designate are doublets derived from the same Latin verb. en.wiktionary.org
The historical construction could assign something to someone. en.wiktionary.org
Unto also occurred in this historical construction. en.wiktionary.org
Dryden used the passive construction and the quoted wording about a person's intended profession. gutenberg.org
Dryden's preface containing the quotation was first published in 1680. gutenberg.org
11
verbobsoletetransitive
To mark out and show something; to indicate, point out, or designate it.
Note
The most literal survival of the Latin behind the 'assign' sense is here: marking a thing out so that it can be seen. Its root is signum, "mark," and the Latin verb meant to mark or trace out. That visual, pointing meaning has passed entirely to indicate, show and designate. Today it appears only in older texts.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The historical marking-out sense reflects a literal meaning of the Latin ancestor of design. en.wiktionary.org
Design ultimately derives from Latin signum, meaning mark. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of design apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Latin 'signum' ('mark') gave 'signō' ('I mark'), and with 'de-' (or 'dis-') this became 'designō' ('I mark out, point out, describe, contrive'), which passed through Old French 'designer' into Middle English 'designen'. It is a doublet of 'designate'.