MASTERMINDED Synonyms: 48 Similar and Opposite Words

masterminded

verb

past tense of mastermind

as in negotiated

to plan out usually with subtle skill or care he was charged with masterminding a plan to redecorate the suite of offices without seriously disrupting business operations

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of masterminded O’Neill masterminded Nike’s pivot away from wholesale, a move that ended badly when retailers started carrying all of Nike’s competitors instead, and oversaw its women’s business, which never matched its men’s line. —

Shelly Banjo, semafor.com, 23 Apr. 2026 Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer has masterminded the charter rewrite, promoting it as a way to make county government more transparent and accountable to the public. —

Lucas Robinson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2026 Prosecutors say Robert Sabiron Rubillar and Liezyl Rubillar, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Legal Systems Billing Solutions, masterminded the scheme. —

Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026 Sixty-five years ago, my grandfather masterminded a robbery at a historic Los Angeles estate. —

Jennifer Cannon, Vanity Fair, 7 Apr. 2026 Its Scandinavian design was masterminded by a Swiss architect, and while the angles may be precise and dramatic, the furnishings are unabashedly hygge, with sheepskins, soft throws, and wood-burning fireplaces throughout to fend off the coastal damp. —

Ashley Baker, Air Mail, 4 Apr. 2026 After reluctantly agreeing to be a temporary adviser, Jobs took over as CEO and masterminded an innovation factory that churned out the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad in a decade-long burst of feverish creativity. —

ABC News, 31 Mar. 2026 Court records show Wamuigah participated in a business email compromise scheme masterminded by Okechuckwu Valentine Osuji of Nigeria. —

Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 29 Mar. 2026 As the story goes, fresh off university and broke in 1996, Ralph Anderl, alongside friends Philipp Haffmans and Harald Gottschling, masterminded the screwless invention, decided to apply it to stainless-steel eyewear and wore some prototype pairs to a gallery event in Berlin. —

Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 20 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for masterminded

Verb

The United States wanted an end to the Iranian ballistic-missile program, something that was not covered by the Iranian treaty that the Obama administration negotiated a decade ago.

— David Frum, The Atlantic, 27 May 2026
Working with the council’s leadership, Bass negotiated an expensive pay package with the city’s police union, hiking starting salaries while offering raises and retention bonuses.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2026