mastermind
verb (used with object)
to plan and direct (a usually complex project or activity), especially skillfully.
masterminded
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past participleof mastermind.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof mastermind.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
mastermindverb (used with object)to plan and direct (a usually complex project or activity), especially skillfully.
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.
Mr. El-Sayed has used Fight Agency, the consulting firm that masterminded the Mamdani mayoral campaign, for his digital and social-media strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
"We denounce and totally reject those claims that Africans are as guilty and complicit as those who masterminded this whole atrocity," he says.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
And then in 2024 he masterminded the Kursk attack -- the first sustained foreign incursion into Russia since WWII.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
A whole new genre of celebrity divorce: Slate’s Scaachi Koul considers how Bunnie Xo, an archetypical “Cool Girl,” seems to have masterminded a new strategy for getting divorced in the public eye.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2026
“There is no comparison between Plutarch, who masterminded the rebel breakout, and those three beauticians,” says Fulvia icily.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
