plotting 1 of 3

plotting

2 of 3

noun

plotting

3 of 3

verb

present participle of plot

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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
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 The storied Italian menswear brand, controlled by Qatari fund Mayhoola, has ambitions to further grow its direct-to-consumer business and is plotting freestanding Pal Zileri stores in key fashion capitals over the next five years, such as London, Paris, Madrid and New York. Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 22 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plotting
Adjective
  • To achieve this, Israel employed airstrikes, cyberattacks, interdictions of weapons and covert action to impede Iran’s ability to resupply Hezbollah’s existing arsenal and supply it with more advanced weapons.
    Amy McAuliffe, The Conversation, 26 June 2026
  • After 1996, when the protease inhibitors were developed, the duty to warn continued to be an important standard when HIV status became more clinically covert.
    M. Sara Rosenthal, STAT, 25 June 2026
Noun
  • The reunion of the pair after their scheming didn't fully go to plan, though, as the arrival of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who fans last saw in the season 2 finale, threw everything off.
    Julia Moore, PEOPLE, 30 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
  • Andrea Davis, president and CEO of The Resiliency Initiative, has spent 25 years planning emergency response and crisis management for organizations including Disney, Walmart, the FIFA World Cup and Times Square's New Year's Eve celebration.
    Bryan West, USA Today, 1 July 2026
  • When planning for retirement, asset allocation, withdrawal strategies, and tax-efficient investing is typically top of mind.
    David Kudla, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
Adjective
  • These cybercriminals are like the Hollywood movie character Jason Bourne, a highly surreptitious operative who avoids detection through diversion, disguises, deflecting and blending into the environment.
    Eric Herzog, Forbes.com, 23 June 2026
  • Related Stories Known to be a rebellious royal and a surreptitious anti-fascist, Maria José then moved to Portugal and soon left her husband.
    Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 17 June 2026
Noun
  • More unusual is the way PamStealer combines them to gain stealth.
    Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 2 July 2026
  • Its design emphasized survivability, acoustic stealth, and sustained operations in deep-ocean environments where Soviet submarines were expected to operate.
    Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 29 June 2026
Adjective
  • That was a concern because other research has indicated the Chinese government has, at times, delayed public disclosure of vulnerabilities submitted to the program so they could later be used in clandestine cyberattacks.
    Thomas Brewster, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • The screening usually focusses on clandestine hanky-panky, but this season the girls’ irreverence was so abundant that the producers treated them to an unprecedented second viewing night.
    Lillian Fishman, New Yorker, 27 June 2026
Noun
  • Substance abuse is greatly detrimental in its own right, of course, but sometimes the issues that stem from it—stress, emotional exhaustion, secrecy, avoidance—can have similarly devastating long-term effects on a person’s wellbeing.
    Kaitlyn Gomez, Miami Herald, 29 June 2026
  • The agreement releases all survivors from any prior nondisclosure agreements and forbids any future such secrecy agreements, and prohibits any adult-to-minor digital communications in the archdiocese.
    Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2026
Adjective
  • Adding this recipe's not-so-secret ingredient, Bisquick, is a game changer for classic sausage balls.
    Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 1 July 2026
  • Martin Sheen is the Army captain tasked with going on a secret mission to Cambodia to assassinate a special forces officer (Marlon Brando) who's gone rogue and might actually be nuts.
    Brian Truitt, USA Today, 1 July 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Plotting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plotting. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.

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