plot
Forms
- Plural
- plots
- present (v1)
- plot
- past (v2)
- plotted
- past participle (v3)
- plotted
- present participle
- plotting
- 3rd person singular
- plots
Definitions
1.The course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.
- If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before.
2.An area or land used for building on or planting on.
3.A grave.
- He's buried in the family plot.
4.A ground plan, map; a nautical chart.
1.To conceive (a crime, misdeed etc).
- They were plotting against the king.
- They had plotted a robbery.
2.To trace out (a graph or diagram).
- They plotted the number of edits per day.
3.To mark (a point on a graph, chart, etc).
- Every five minutes they plotted their position.
- This treatise plotteth down Cornwall as it now standeth.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2697
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English plot, plotte, from late Old English plot (“a plot of ground”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *plataz, *platjaz (“a patch”); or alternatively, perhaps from a rebracketing of Old English land-splott (“small portion, or plot, of ground”) taken as landes-plot (“plot of land”). Compare Middle Low German plet (“patch, strip of cloth, rags”), German Bletz (“rags, bits, strip of land”), and possibly Gothic 𐍀𐌻𐌰𐍄 (plat, “a patch, rags”). See also plat. See also complot for an influence and reinforcement of noun sense 8.