Synonyms of scheming

scheming 1 of 3

adjective

ˈskē-miŋ 

as in cunning

clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

the novel is about an elderly man and his scheming son who is impatient to inherit the family fortune

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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

scheming

2 of 3

noun

as in plotting

Related Words

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

Dissimilar Words

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

scheming

3 of 3

verb

present participle of scheme

as in conniving

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

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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of scheming

Adjective

Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica. — Demetris Nellas, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Jan. 2023

The show gestures at the classic targets of old-timey sexism, small-mindedness, and nativism—much of it embodied by Gasteyer’s scheming character—but only in the safest possible ways. — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 21 Apr. 2026

Noun

The biggest move, of course, was taking the eviction power out of the hands of viewers and giving it to the contestants themselves, leading to all the scheming and scamming and plotting that has gone on ever since. — Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 4 June 2026

Hatcher — a Pomo shape-shifter who dodges prejudice by passing as Mexican in the novel — is a thorny protagonist, often cunning, scheming and unforgiving. — Maddie Connors, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2026

Verb

As to honest services wire fraud, it is based on Beasley allegedly scheming to defraud the Bucks and the NBA of his honest services. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 29 June 2026

The catastrophies that our heroine averts are awfully small potatoes — a bulldozer running amok, an amusement park ride speeding out of control, some prankish teenagers scheming to turn the girl’s shower into a steambath. — Arthur Knight, HollywoodReporter, 25 June 2026