Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small piece of ground, generally used for a specific purpose: a garden plot.
- n. A measured area of land; a lot.
- n. A ground plan, as for a building; a diagram.
- n. See graph1.
- n. The pattern of events or main story in a narrative or drama.
- n. A secret plan to accomplish a hostile or illegal purpose; a scheme.
- v. To represent graphically, as on a chart: plot a ship's course.
- v. Mathematics To locate (points or other figures) on a graph by means of coordinates.
- v. Mathematics To draw (a curve) connecting points on a graph.
- v. To conceive and arrange the action and incidents of: "I began plotting novels at about the time I learned to read” ( James Baldwin).
- v. To form a plot for; prearrange secretly or deviously: plot an assassination.
- v. To be located by means of coordinates, as on a chart or with data.
- v. To form or take part in a plot; scheme.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piece of ground; specifically, a small piece of ground of well-defined shape; a patch or spot of ground.
- n. A patch, spot, or splotch of any kind, as in a garment.
- n. In surveying, a plan or draft of a field, farm, estate, etc., surveyed and delineated on paper; a map or plan.
- n. A fully formulated scheme or plan; a systematized purpose; design; aim.
- n. A stratagem or secret plan; a secret project; an intrigue; a conspiracy.
- n. The story of a play, poem, novel, or romance, comprising a complication of incidents which are at last unfolded by unexpected means; the intrigue.
- n. Contrivance; deep reach of thought; ability to plan.
- To make a map or plan of; lay down on paper according to scale: as, to plot a farm or an estate; to plot a ship's course on a chart.
- To determine or fix by measurements on a map or chart.
- To plan; form plans for; devise; contrive; conspire to effect or bring about: now rarely used in a good sense.
- Synonyms To concoct, brew, hatch, plan.
- To form a plan or plot; scheme; especially, to conspire.
- To scald; steep in very hot water.
- To make (any liquid) scalding hot.
- To divide into plots, as a building-site.
- To press into cakes or balls, as soap.
Wiktionary
- n. The general course of a story including significant events that determine its course or significant patterns of events.
- n. An area or land used for building on or planting on.
- n. A plan to commit a crime.
- n. A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device.
- v. To conceive (a crime, etc).
- v. To trace out (a graph or diagram).
- v. To mark (a point on a graph, chart, etc).
- v. To conceive a crime, misdeed, etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small extent of ground; a plat.
- n. A plantation laid out.
- n. A plan or draught of a field, farm, estate, etc., drawn to a scale.
- v. To make a plot, map, pr plan, of; to mark the position of on a plan; to delineate.
- n. Any scheme, stratagem, secret design, or plan, of a complicated nature, adapted to the accomplishment of some purpose, usually a treacherous and mischievous one; a conspiracy; an intrigue.
- n. A share in such a plot or scheme; a participation in any stratagem or conspiracy.
- n. Contrivance; deep reach of thought; ability to plot or intrigue.
- n. A plan; a purpose.
- n. In fiction, the story of a play, novel, romance, or poem, comprising a complication of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.
- v. To form a scheme of mischief against another, especially against a government or those who administer it; to conspire.
- v. To contrive a plan or stratagem; to scheme.
- v. To plan; to scheme; to devise; to contrive secretly.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
- v. make a schematic or technical drawing of that shows interactions among variables or how something is constructed
- n. a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation
- v. make a plat of
- n. a chart or map showing the movements or progress of an object
- v. plan secretly, usually something illegal
- v. devise the sequence of events in (a literary work or a play, movie, or ballet)
- n. the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English.
Examples
“_Plot -- plot -- plot_," says an enlightened British critic, "have been Mr. Dimond's three studies.”
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810
“Well, how about a forested planet with the deeply "connected" natives, a human military raid on a huge tree-city and a subsequent retaliation of natives ... some scenes seem incredibly familiar, even though Le Guin plot is markedly deeper and more sophisticated.”
“I'm not sure what the main plot is for The Unseen, but if it's anywhere near as good as The Price then there's good reason for me to have this on my wish list.”
“This book's main plot is quite similar to an episode from series 2.”
“An interesting sub-plot to the self-loathing, lonely hero main plot, is a moral question of why Hancock should abide by regular human morality, given that he is, in ways, more than human.”
“No pg-13, no Shia, and no changing the story to the point where the main plot is gone.”
Update on DJ Caruso’s Y: The Last Man with Shia LaBeouf | /Film
“That's because the main plot is not the action or the treachery or the historical import, it's the friendship among D'Artagnan and the three Musketeers.”
“Although the main plot is slow to start this is not necessarily a slow book.”
“The writing staff seem more concerned with what gender bending they can crowbar into the plot I use the term plot in it's loosest sense instead of actually thinking what would be interesting as a story dynamic.”
“The term plot is the abstract storyline of a narrative; that is, the sequence of elemental, chronologically ordered events which create the 'inner core' of a narrative.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘plot’.
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The Enterprise
enterprise, gameplan, goal, gimmick, intendment of int..., lay of the land, machination, notions, object, objectives, pitch, picture and 54 more...
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New Word Order
goal is governmen..., gravedigger, tragedy, hope, state department, united nations, disarmament, new world order, slavery, eugenics, unesco, illuminati and 53 more...
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Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...

Louises See love comments Mar 26, 2012