plot

1 a secret plan for accomplishing evil or unlawful ends the Secret Service uncovered just in time a plot to assassinate the President Synonyms conspiracy, design, intrigue, machination, scheme Related Words counterconspiracy, counterplot; frame-up; manipulation, subterfuge, trickery; artifice, contrivance, cover-up, dodge, draft, maneuver, stratagem, trick; cabal, confederacy, ring; game, gimmick, racket; ground plan, program, strategy, system; collusion, complicity, connivance, conniving, conspiration

2 a small area of usually open land grew vegetables in a little plot Synonyms clearing, ground, lot, parcel, plat, field, tractRelated Words common(s), croft [chiefly British]; grass, green, greensward, lawn; glade, grassland, heath, heathland, lea (or ley), meadow, moor, pasture, pastureland

3 a small piece of land that is developed or available for development subdivided the old farm into plots for tract houses Synonyms parcel, plat, lot, property, tractRelated Words patch; frontage; lease; development; real estate

4 the unfolding of events in a dramatic or literary work wrote novels in which the plot was always subordinate to the characterizations Synonyms action, story, story lineRelated Words subplot; arc, development; design, outline, plan, scheme; argument, mythos, subject, theme