Thesaurus results for SCHEMES

schemes 1 of 2

noun

plural of scheme

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

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Relevance

as in plots

a secret plan for accomplishing evil or unlawful ends a scheme to kidnap the president's daughter

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as in plans

a method worked out in advance for achieving some objective a scheme to upgrade the city's mass transit system

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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

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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 schemes

Noun

Spoelstra finished tied with Houston’s Ime Udoka with the second-most votes (10%) as the head coach who has the best defensive schemes. — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 15 Oct. 2026 While both players moved around sometimes in their respective schemes, Shipp and Glasker do most of their damage as outside receivers. — Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Oct. 2026 But RealPage’s pricing schemes didn’t work if too many landlords defected and undercut prices—that’s where the muscle came in. — Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2026 The Department of Justice is committed to expanding our investigations and exposing schemes designed to evade accountability, because there is no safe haven for fraudsters. — Brittany Miller, FOXNews.com, 14 Oct. 2026 Federal agencies have investigated individual operators for employing young Israelis on tourist visas to sell these products, resulting in more than a dozen guilty pleas for visa fraud and money-laundering schemes. — Monika Evstatieva, NPR, 14 Oct. 2026 This stops the vast majority of these schemes and costs nothing to implement. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 13 Oct. 2026 Gaps in oversight Weak oversight has allowed these predatory schemes to persist in California. — Ilan Shrira, The Conversation, 13 Oct. 2026 For private schemes, the requirements include publicly available criteria, independent monitoring of compliance and procedures to withdraw or suspend a label when requirements are breached. — Alexandra Harrell, Footwear News, 12 Oct. 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for schemes

Noun

There’s a delightful secret history of Hollywood directors whose ruses and stratagems bought them an unusual amount of leeway with their scripts.

— Richard Brody, New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2026
Even before pro-party AI ruses were possible, the Chinese government and its supporters flooded social media with pro-China propaganda and vicious attacks on critics.

— Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, 7 July 2026

Definition of ruses

Noun

There’s no winking at the audience, no sense of camp or parody, just a lot of appealing interactions, plus some wholly superfluous tertiary plots added to expand the story to series length.

— Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2026
Unsheltered intertwined two plots related to the precarity of American life and the danger of demagogues—one set at the dawn of the MAGA era.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of plots

Noun

Every transformer on the grid—from the cylinders perched on utility lines to the big spiky devices at substations—trades voltage for current at a fixed ratio.

— Alex Pasternack, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Within a day, the researcher began seeing active scanning of the simulated Plex server and eventually successful attempts to infect devices.

— Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of devices

Noun

What always entertains me so much about those types of conspiracies is that reality is just as crazy.

— Nilay Patel, The Verge, 15 Oct. 2026
But in recent years, Brand has publicly pivoted to an influencer and podcaster focused on spirituality and heavily leaning toward anti-government conspiracies.

— CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of conspiracies

Noun

For some young investors, that means money originally allocated to long-term strategies is being funneled to activities built around immediate outcomes.

— Aneri Jambusaria, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2026
Other strategies make distributions that may include all three types.

— Cheryl Winokur Munk, CNBC, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of strategies

Noun

As video game movies keep getting better (or at least more popular), a few blueprints have emerged for adapting material that used to consistently stump Hollywood.

— Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2026
Holtec has coordinated engineering hubs across several countries to finalize the technical blueprints.

— Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of blueprints

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schemers

schemes

schemes (out)

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Style

“Schemes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/schemes. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of schemes

noun

verb

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