- present participle of scheme.
scheming
Americanadjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scheming
Explanation
Scheming is an adjective that describes someone who is always doing sneaky things to make things happen, like your scheming friend who invites you to a family party because she secretly wants you to meet her adorable cousin. A scheme is a plan of action that is usually secret or kept hidden. So something described as scheming has the quality of secretive planning. For example, you might offer to keep your mom company on a long drive to drop off a relative at the airport because on the way home, you plan to ask her to stop at the big shopping mall that's right off the highway. That's the essence of being scheming — you conceal your true intentions because you believe it will help you get what you want.
Vocabulary lists containing scheming
Charlotte's Web
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Six of Crows
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As Brave as You
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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.
Of the four-person ensemble, I was most intrigued by Rachna Khatau, the wild card of the group whose roles are the most slyly scheming and unpredictable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
"I know what I did, I know what we did, and I know how it happened. It didn't feel like we were scheming or plotting."
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Instead of scheming to hack a company, a swarm with as many as 10,000 agents hacked away at math for 88 hours, building on each other’s work—and the work of humans—until they reached a solution.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Hardly the smoking gun that puts him in an Afghan cave, scheming with Osama bin Laden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
John Garrett was sure the men were scheming to steal their horses in the middle of the night.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
