Library / English Dictionary

SCHEME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A schematic or preliminary plan

Synonyms:

outline; schema; scheme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("scheme" is a kind of...):

plan; program; programme (a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished)

Derivation:

schematic (represented in simplified or symbolic form)

schematize (formulate in regular order; to reduce to a scheme or formula)

scheme (devise a system or form a scheme for)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An elaborate and systematic plan of action

Synonyms:

scheme; strategy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("scheme" is a kind of...):

plan of action (a plan for actively doing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scheme"):

incentive program; incentive scheme (a formal scheme for inducing someone (as employees) to do something)

wheeze ((Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick)

waiting game (a strategy of delay)

pyramid scheme (a fraudulent scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to the person who recruited them while expecting to receive payments from the persons they recruit; when the number of new recruits fails to sustain the hierarchical payment structure the scheme collapses with most of the participants losing the money they put in)

game; plot; secret plan (a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal))

playbook (a scheme or set of strategies for conducting a business campaign or a political campaign)

bubble; house of cards (a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control)

game plan ((figurative) a carefully thought out strategy for achieving an objective in war or politics or business or personal affairs)

game plan ((sports) a plan for achieving an objective in some sport)

counterterrorism (a strategy intended to prevent or counter terrorism)

contrivance; dodge; stratagem (an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world

Synonyms:

schema; scheme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("scheme" is a kind of...):

internal representation; mental representation; representation (a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image)

Derivation:

schematize (give conventional form to)

schematize (formulate in regular order; to reduce to a scheme or formula)

scheme (devise a system or form a scheme for)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery

Synonyms:

dodge; dodging; scheme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("scheme" is a kind of...):

falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole

Example:

a vast system of production and distribution and consumption keep the country going

Synonyms:

scheme; system

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("scheme" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Meronyms (parts of "scheme"):

hierarchy (a series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scheme"):

root system; rootage (a developed system of roots)

water system (a river and all of its tributaries)

solar system (the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field)

shebang (an entire system; used in the phrase 'the whole shebang')

body (a collection of particulars considered as a system)

syntax (a systematic orderly arrangement)

organism (a system considered analogous in structure or function to a living body)

subsystem (a system that is part of some larger system)

nonlinear system (a system whose performance cannot be described by equations of the first degree)

network; web (an interconnected system of things or people)

machinery (a system of means and activities whereby a social institution functions)

dragnet (a system of coordinated measures for apprehending (criminals or other individuals))

social organisation; social organization; social structure; social system; structure (the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships)

ecosystem (a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment)

economic system; economy (the system of production and distribution and consumption)

judicatory; judicature; judicial system; judiciary (the system of law courts that administer justice and constitute the judicial branch of government)

language system (a system of linguistic units or elements used in a particular language)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

Synonyms:

connive; intrigue; scheme

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "scheme" is one way to...):

plot (plan secretly, usually something illegal)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Devise a system or form a scheme for

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "scheme" is one way to...):

plan (make plans for something)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

Derivation:

scheme (a schematic or preliminary plan)

scheme (an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world)

schemer (a planner who draws up a personal scheme of action)

Credits

 Context examples: 

This looked like some new scheme of villainy....

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“That would be a good scheme,” said Elizabeth, “if you were sure that they would not offer to send her home.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There was no place for her in his scheme of things, as there was no place for him in hers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Poor Elinor!—here was a new scheme for getting her to Delaford!—but her spirit was stubborn.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

NOTE(S): To be used when no suitable coding scheme is available.

(Package Name, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad one in itself.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If the fresh facts which come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly; while two or three fools more or less would not alter the scheme of things.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I fathomed the depth of the rascal's whole scheme, and understood why he laid it bare.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)