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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in plotting
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
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
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of scheming
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 2025
Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica.
—
Demetris Nellas,
BostonGlobe.com,
10 Jan. 2023
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
10 June 2026
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
Literary Hub,
18 June 2026
Nonetheless, the series evolves into an elaborate soap opera over its 39 episodes, with complex scheming characters opposing Utena, her relationship with Anthy serving as the lodestar that guides this tragedy towards its ambiguous conclusion.
—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for scheming
Adjective
The doors that slam, as farcical doors are built to do, open to work spaces, where a good deal of time is spent scheming and counter-scheming.
—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 2025
Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica.
—
Demetris Nellas,
BostonGlobe.com,
10 Jan. 2023
Noun
In the finale of Season 2, the women have gotten past the lying and scheming and are in a new and more honest place.
—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
10 June 2026
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
Verb
The kids are savvy, scheming to avoid their parents.
—
Literary Hub,
18 June 2026
Nonetheless, the series evolves into an elaborate soap opera over its 39 episodes, with complex scheming characters opposing Utena, her relationship with Anthy serving as the lodestar that guides this tragedy towards its ambiguous conclusion.
—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for scheming
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scheming
Adjective
-
That doesn't enable cunning and unprincipled men to subvert the power of the people.
-
For decades, humans mined antibiotic molecules from microbes and tweaked them to develop new drugs, staying ahead of evolution’s cunning countermeasures.
Noun
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Instead the episode begins with Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) plotting.
-
Battle, conspiracy, plotting, and some new faces in the cast.
Adjective
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Berries, given their naturally tiny nature, are a super cute choice.
-
The pair have to find their friends (JJ included) which leads to a cute game of peekaboo.
Noun
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More unusual is the way PamStealer combines them to gain stealth.
-
Its design emphasized survivability, acoustic stealth, and sustained operations in deep-ocean environments where Soviet submarines were expected to operate.
Adjective
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Off a slick feed from Houssem Aouar, Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez scored his second goal of the game to give Algeria a 3-2 lead.
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Appollis made some slick dribbles to set up a right-footed shot from outside the box.
Noun
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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.
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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.
Cite this Entry
“Scheming.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scheming. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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