Synonyms of schemes

schemes 1 of 2

noun

plural of scheme

1

as in ruses

a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end

an e-mail scheme to trick unwary Internet users into disclosing passwords and financial information

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ruses
• devices
• tricks
• stratagems
• artifices
• gambits
• ploys
• shenanigans
• wiles
• sleights of hand
• jigs
• sleights
• gimmicks
• dodges
• plays
• juggles
• knacks
• fetches
• deceptions
• subterfuges
• trickeries
• bluffs
• duplicities
• flimflams
• chicaneries
• hoaxes
• feints
• frauds
• swindles
• end runs
• cunnings
• crafts
• juggleries
• duperies
• fakeries
• skulduggeries
• cozenages
• crookeries
• fronts
• legerdemains
• gaffs
• smoke screens
• shams
• blinds

2

as in plots

a secret plan for accomplishing evil or unlawful ends

a scheme to kidnap the president's daughter

Synonyms & Similar Words

• plots
• conspiracies
• machinations
• intrigues
• strategies
• designs
• subterfuges
• trickeries
• manipulations
• stratagems
• maneuvers
• counterplots
• artifices
• programs
• systems
• contrivances
• cabals
• frame-ups
• rackets
• confederacies
• dodges
• counterconspiracies
• collusions
• drafts
• ground plans
• gimmicks
• tricks
• complicities
• rings
• cover-ups
• games
• connivances
• conspirations

3

as in plans

a method worked out in advance for achieving some objective

a scheme to upgrade the city's mass transit system

Synonyms & Similar Words

• plans
• strategies
• blueprints
• programs
• projects
• systems
• designs
• arrangements
• proposals
• games
• ideas
• ways
• procedures
• master plans
• techniques
• recipes
• ground plans
• devices
• game plans
• plots
• road maps
• policies
• tactics
• purposes
• conspiracies
• intentions
• stratagems
• maneuvers
• protocols
• subterfuges
• specifications
• contrivances
• intents
• ruses
• means
• collusions
• tricks
• aims
• maps
• gambits
• formulas
• conceptions
• counterplans
• patterns
• diagrams
• platforms
• counterstrategies
• setups
• specifics
• layouts
• projets

schemes

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of scheme

as in intrigues

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

the town inspector had schemed to overlook the contractor's code violations in exchange for a substantial bribe

Synonyms & Similar Words

• plots
• plans
• intrigues
• connives
• conspires
• contrives
• colludes
• devises
• designs
• engineers
• machinates
• hatches
• concocts
• maps
• maneuvers
• compasses
• counterplots
• manipulates
• shapes
• brews
• cooks (up)
• puts up
• frames
• jockeys
• lays out

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of schemes

Noun

Dak Prescott also didn’t seem to know how to figure out the new Giants schemes. — Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 Sep. 2026

Americans have been suckered by fraudsters so bold that their schemes are now part of everyday speech. — Jonathan Fahey, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026

Further stages, from distribution to end-of-life, account for 20 to 30 percent but are critical to enabling upstream change via low-carbon product lines and robust take-back and recycling schemes. — Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 17 Sep. 2026

Longer messages mean slower communication, so people who study error-correcting codes devise more elaborate schemes to minimize the redundancy in the transmissions while maximizing the number of errors that can be corrected. — Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2026

Meanwhile, third wife Iya Femi (Bimbo Ademoye) is the most cunning and ruthless in trying to defend her position within the household, playing up to Iya Segi’s schemes as her most willing conspirator. — Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026

But Congress has to be careful when compelling states—a term that can include public universities—to enforce federal law and federal regulatory schemes. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 16 Sep. 2026

Related Articles It was created by a team of specialists who mapped the Basilica’s interior and exterior spaces and its major decorative schemes using ultra-high-resolution gigapixel photography and three-dimensional surveys. — Francesca Aton, ARTnews.com, 16 Sep. 2026

The Eagles are shifting away from their usual vertical, power run-blocking schemes to a wide-zone blocking scheme, while making plays less predictable by making run and pass plays look similar. — Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026

Verb

Marty, who was loosely based on real-life ping-pong legend Marty Reisman, schemes his way to competitions across the globe and hustles for pocket cash. — Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 9 Mar. 2026

Joy Randolph, follows a desperate gallery owner (Portman) who schemes to sell a dead man as art at Art Basel in Miami. — Erin Clack, PEOPLE, 26 Jan. 2026

Chalamet embodies Marty’s arrant showmanship with an evident joy in performance, exactly as Marty himself schemes not only shamelessly but jubilantly. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2025

Matthew quickly schemes his way into Oliver’s orbit after that first performance, impressing and rankling the group of lackeys in his entourage at the same time. — Eric Torres, Pitchfork, 27 Aug. 2025