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

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

John Stewart’s exasperated adieu to his alien abductors doubles as a meta acknowledgement of Episode 2’s exposition-heavy plotting. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 23 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

Klausner modeled the show’s intricate plotting on Curb Your Enthusiasm, constructing separate stories that would dovetail at the end of an episode. — Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 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

But when actually committed to screen, Stuart Fails is painful at nearly every turn, a grim death march through a series of overworn jokes and wall-spaghetti plotting made even less fun with each smugly metafictional turn. — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 23 July 2026

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

Verb

Messages reviewed by the researchers showed agents plotting ways to evade detection, use tools such as Tor and preserve communications even after they had been shut down. — Reuters, NBC news, 4 Sep. 2026

Now, in early 1943, the 33-year-old Flynn — the country’s biggest movie star — was plotting his flight from the American justice system. — Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2026

Season 3 sees Kimmie (Taylor Polidore Williams) and Mallory (Crystle Stewart) consolidate their power at the family business, however their success is put at risk when their rivals escape from behind bars and begin plotting their revenge. — Emma Banks, PEOPLE, 2 Sep. 2026

Apple, Amazon, CenturyLink, DirecTV, Dish Network, Hulu, Sony, T-Mobile—just about anyone in the digital entertainment or telecommunications industries appeared to be plotting their own attempts at online TV. — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 1 Sep. 2026

Proper later allegedly admitted to plotting the UFC 250 attack and described it in full to the FBI, according to the criminal complaint. — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 27 Aug. 2026

For now, Fearn seems less focused on plotting out a career and more interested in chasing whatever catches his attention next. — Wengel Gemu, Vanity Fair, 27 Aug. 2026

The lesson isn’t that today’s police running license-plate-reading systems are secretly plotting political sabotage. — Karl W. Bickel, Baltimore Sun, 25 Aug. 2026

The mathematics doctoral student is trying to convince authorities that a Silicon Valley billionaire is plotting domestic nuclear terrorism. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 21 Aug. 2026