plot
a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, especially a hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose: a plot to overthrow the government.
Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.
a small piece or area of ground: a garden plot;burial plot.
a measured piece or parcel of land: a house on a two-acre plot.
a plan, map, diagram, or other graphic representation, as of land, a building, etc.
a list, timetable, or scheme dealing with any of the various arrangements for the production of a play, motion picture, etc.: According to the property plot, there should be a lamp stage left.
a chart showing the course of a craft, as a ship or airplane.
Artillery. a point or points located on a map or chart: target plot.
to plan secretly, especially something hostile or evil: to plot mutiny.
to mark on a plan, map, or chart, as the course of a ship or aircraft.
to draw a plan or map of, as a tract of land or a building.
to divide (land) into plots.
to determine and mark (points), as on plotting paper, by means of measurements or coordinates.
to draw (a curve) by means of points so marked.
to represent by means of such a curve.
to devise or construct the plot of (a play, novel, etc.).
to prepare a list, timetable, or scheme of (production arrangements), as for a play or motion picture:The stage manager hadn't plotted the set changes until one day before the dress rehearsal.
to make (a calculation) by graph.
to plan or scheme secretly; form a plot; conspire.
to devise or develop a literary or dramatic plot.
to be marked or located by means of measurements or coordinates, as on plotting paper.
Origin of plot
1synonym study For plot
word story For plot
In the mid-16th century, plot was used to refer to a map, ground plan, sketch, or written outline. At about the same time, it also came to mean “a secret, usually evil plan”; the verb meaning “to plan secretly, devise” comes from that sense of the noun. Plot in the sense “a storyline or main story of a play or novel” dates from the early 17th century.
Other words for plot
Other words from plot
- plot·ful, adjective
- plot·less, adjective
- plot·less·ness, noun
- out·plot, verb (used with object), out·plot·ted, out·plot·ting.
- o·ver·plot, verb, o·ver·plot·ted, o·ver·plot·ting.
- pre·plot, verb (used with object), pre·plot·ted, pre·plot·ting.
- re·plot, verb (used with object), re·plot·ted, re·plot·ting.
- un·plot·ted, adjective
- un·plot·ting, adjective
- well-plot·ted, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use plot in a sentence
Still, fans were mainly baffled at both Dean’s manner of death and the many unresolved plot lines or absent elements from the episode.
Supernatural’s bonkers series finale marked the end of an era of fandom | Aja Romano | November 20, 2020 | VoxAfter mixing up the soil at each site, they added microplastics to some of those plots.
Polluting microplastics harm both animals and ecosystems | Alison Pearce Stevens | November 3, 2020 | Science News For StudentsThose with a high tolerance for antiheroic political thrillers will have no problem watching it — or figuring out its overall plot well before it’s revealed.
With ‘Roadkill,’ PBS invites you to watch a narcissist politician who gets away with everything. How does that grab you? | Hank Stuever | October 30, 2020 | Washington PostSo if someone claims that election problems are evidence of a nefarious political plot, take a moment to consider other possible causes.
Voters should resist blaming every election glitch on political interference | Amy Nordrum | October 29, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThe key Venus observations were spectra, or plots of the light coming from the planet in a range of wavelengths.
Doubts over a ‘possible sign of life’ on Venus show how science works | Lisa Grossman | October 28, 2020 | Science News
A common view in Russia is that the West was involved in plotting the revolution in Ukraine.
U.S. intelligence agencies accuse the Khorasan veterans of plotting attacks against commercial airliners in the West.
ISIS and Al Qaeda Ready to Gang Up on Obama's Rebels | Jamie Dettmer | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut what Waters is doing in The Paying Guests is something more nuanced than mere plotting pyrotechnics.
Sarah Waters’s New Novel Rewrites the Rules of Love | Lucy Scholes | September 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe is as conversant with HTML and Git as with metaphor and the twists and turns of plotting.
Vikram Chandra Is A Novelist Who's Obsessed With Writing Computer Code | Jane Ciabattari | August 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTNow ISIS controls one third of a state in the Mideast, and is plotting attacks against America.
All the miserable stratagems they had been guilty of to win him; the dishonest plotting and planning.
Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry WoodWith nonjurors and persons suspected of plotting against the existing government he must not appear to have any connection.
The History of England from the Accession of James II. | Thomas Babington MacaulayThe plotting of Vautrin, who bore for him an unnatural affection, saved his life; the sentence was commuted.
Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A -- Z | Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois ChristopheTo be sitting there in an English vicarage plotting violence against a woman disturbed him.
Marriage la mode | Mrs. Humphry WardKildare was also accused of plotting with him, and this charge was never fully cleared up.
Ireland Under the Tudors, Vol. II (of 3) | Richard Bagwell
British Dictionary definitions for plot (1 of 2)
/ (plɒt) /
a secret plan to achieve some purpose, esp one that is illegal or underhand: a plot to overthrow the government
the story or plan of a play, novel, etc
military a graphic representation of an individual or tactical setting that pinpoints an artillery target
mainly US a diagram or plan, esp a surveyor's map
lose the plot informal to lose one's ability or judgment in a given situation
to plan secretly (something illegal, revolutionary, etc); conspire
(tr) to mark (a course, as of a ship or aircraft) on a map
(tr) to make a plan or map of
to locate and mark (one or more points) on a graph by means of coordinates
to draw (a curve) through these points
(tr) to construct the plot of (a literary work)
Origin of plot
1British Dictionary definitions for plot (2 of 2)
/ (plɒt) /
a small piece of land: a vegetable plot
(tr) to arrange or divide (land) into plots
Origin of plot
2Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for plot
The organization of events in a work of fiction.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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