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

Instead the episode begins with Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) plotting. — Ew Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 25 June 2026

Battle, conspiracy, plotting, and some new faces in the cast. — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026

Still, there’s plenty of extraordinary plotting early on, too, that foregrounds the strangeness of the heroes’ journeys. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 16 June 2026

The length exacerbates all the rest of the series' sins, including a lack of emotional depth, gratuitous suffering and violence, long stretches of boring, listless plotting and extraneous characters. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 4 June 2026

Which was widely panned for its unrealistic plot, laughable dialogue, and inexplicable plotting. — Ian Miller Outkick, FOXNews.com, 2 June 2026

But here’s where the plotting turns ridiculously tidy. — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 24 May 2026

Who is murdered, why and Clare’s entanglement in the whole deal unfold over the remainder of the novel, featuring much tighter and more plausible plotting than your average suspense story. — John Warner, Chicago Tribune, 16 May 2026

For that, Quintrell turned directly to Austen’s own plotting. — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 7 May 2026

Verb

But now, Yepez sits in jail — accused of plotting to kill one of her employees. — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026

Sources tell OutKick that Pitaro backed Mark Jones in 2020 when Jones falsely accused police officers of plotting to shoot him. — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 2 July 2026

Lively accused Baldoni in December 2024 of harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us and subsequently plotting a smear campaign against her. — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 30 June 2026

These run the gamut, from plotting out your projects on a timeline to checking on a particular team member’s activity or assignments. — Ruben Circelli, PC Magazine, 30 June 2026

Arnold’s name appeared in text exchanges between the co-defendants plotting the robbery and kidnapping, court records show, but his phone did not send or receive any of the text messages discovered by investigators. — Colton Pouncy, New York Times, 30 June 2026

Everyone loved it, without pretense, staying up late to watch it and then plotting our own stunts the next day. — T.m. Brown, CNN Money, 26 June 2026

The suspects accused of plotting an attack on the UFC fight at the White House allegedly planned to deploy drones armed with explosives around the event, forcing the crowd to evacuate before they would be targeted by sniper fire, court records said. — Christopher Cann, USA Today, 24 June 2026

The updates come as Zoox is plotting expansion in additional markets and preparing to charge for rides later this year. — Annie Palmer, CNBC, 24 June 2026