Synonyms of plotting

plotting 1 of 3

adjective

as in calculating

Related Words

• calculating
• covert
• surreptitious
• clandestine
• secret
• undercover
• furtive
• circular
• concealed
• stealthy
• circuitous
• roundabout
• treacherous
• designing
• Machiavellian
• fraudulent
• serpentine
• scheming
• hypocritical
• sneaky
• hugger-mugger
• deceptive
• oblique
• insincere
• unscrupulous
• deceitful
• backhanded
• underhanded
• dishonest
• underhand
• shifty
• double-dealing
• cunning
• mealy
• insinuating
• crooked
• astute
• shady
• slippery
• crafty
• facile
• subtle
• mealymouthed
• knavish
• wily
• two-faced
• glib
• devious
• artful
• shrewd
• sly
• tricky
• slick
• cagey
• smooth-tongued
• beguiling
• left-handed
• foxy
• cute
• guileful
• sharp
• dodgy

Dissimilar Words

• innocent
• plain
• obvious
• direct
• artless
• real
• public
• open
• guileless
• ingenuous
• simple
• unconcealed
• patent
• natural
• straightforward
• sincere
• unaffected
• undesigning
• outspoken
• honest
• frank
• candid
• forthright
• unvarnished
• unsophisticated
• childlike
• unpretentious
• unpretending
• aboveboard
• trusting
• impressionable
• unworldly
• simpleminded
• unstudied
• unforced
• plainspoken
• trustful

plotting

2 of 3

noun

as in scheming

Related Words

• scheming
• stealth
• secrecy
• design
• dirty pool
• deception
• duplicity
• dirty tricks
• treachery
• hypocrisy
• humbuggery
• deceit
• double-dealing
• fakery
• imposture
• quackery
• crookedness
• subterfuge
• dishonesty
• insincerity
• deceptiveness
• dissimulation
• shrewdness
• guile
• deviousness
• dupery
• sneakiness
• slyness
• cunning
• underhandedness
• trickery
• skulduggery
• chicanery
• craftiness
• deceitfulness
• shiftiness
• slickness
• slipperiness
• crookery
• artfulness
• gamesmanship
• wiliness
• jugglery
• oiliness
• wile
• shadiness
• caginess
• sharpness
• jiggery-pokery
• chicane
• guilefulness
• hanky-panky
• legerdemain
• artifice
• foxiness

Dissimilar Words

• sincerity
• artlessness
• ingenuousness
• guilelessness
• forthrightness
• directness
• openness
• candor
• plainness
• candidness
• plainspokenness

plotting

3 of 3

verb

present participle of plot

as in planning

to engage in a secret plan to accomplish evil or unlawful ends

mobsters were caught plotting to take over the company

Synonyms & Similar Words

• scheming
• planning
• conspiring
• colluding
• contriving
• conniving
• intriguing
• designing
• devising
• machinating
• engineering
• manipulating
• hatching
• concocting
• compassing
• brewing
• mapping
• maneuvering
• putting up
• jockeying
• counterplotting
• cooking (up)
• shaping
• framing
• laying out

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of plotting

Noun

Deft plotting, vivid characterization, and murky shenanigans power this relentlessly entertaining tale. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Oct. 2026

After that, Grace all but disappears from Crystal Lake, exposing the haphazard plotting of a show that refuses to commit. — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 15 Oct. 2026

None of this ever accumulates much weight, however, since the conflicts are all dulled by the one-note absurdity of the farcical plotting. — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 29 Sep. 2026

Dense plotting and brutal conflict come together for memorably extravagant zeniths. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2026

Amid a national cinema that has become internationally recognized for perverse plotting and deadpan absurdism, writer-director Alexis Alexiou‘s third feature stands out for its stark storytelling and earnest emotional intensity. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 30 Aug. 2026

Setting the film on the Canadian frontier rather than the American sets it apart from its peers, and the more languid pacing and character-driven plotting continue to distinguish it as a mannered classic. — David Faris, TheWeek, 21 Aug. 2026

Then again, there never was with risky plotting predicated on rotation health. — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 19 Aug. 2026

In October, 2024, Navalna was found guilty, but of a lesser category of terrorist plotting, and sentenced to eight years in prison, rather than the fifteen that the prosecution had requested. — Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026

Verb

Two teenage girls spent months plotting a mass shooting in Riverside County, officials say. — Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026

The distinction matters because operating an unmanned vessel requires more than plotting a route. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 20 Oct. 2026

His dysfunctional family rallies to help him, eventually plotting a robbery. — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 20 Oct. 2026

In the years to come, plotting out the dense and often convoluted storylines on a giant dry-erase board would become a staple of the Seinfeld writing process. — Blake J. Harris, Vanity Fair, 19 Oct. 2026

Germany had summoned Iran’s ambassador in Berlin after a ​court sentenced two men with ties to Iran’s intelligence ​service for plotting to kill the leader of a Jewish organization in Germany. — ABC News, 19 Oct. 2026

Scaramucci was concerned, above all, that some of his new colleagues, particularly the White House chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus, were plotting against him. — David Remnick, New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2026

Alexandros Paporakis, of Palatine, was arrested on Sunday after allegedly plotting to open fire at a Hindu temple in Aurora, a suburb of Chicago, Palatine Police said at a news conference on Thursday. — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026

With the children’s television landscape evolving from the bright sitcom-style of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows, a veteran director of the genre is plotting his own course, while still working in the children’s entertainment space. — Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 15 Oct. 2026