plot

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)

   they concocted a plot to discredit the governor

2. 2
   noun

   the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.

   the characters were well drawn but the plot was banal

3. 3
   noun

   a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation

   a bean plot

4. 4
   verb

   plan secretly, usually something illegal

   They plotted the overthrow of the government

5. 5
   verb

   devise the sequence of events in (a literary work or a play, movie, or ballet)

   the writer is plotting a new novel

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   A grave.

   He's buried in the family plot.

8. 8
   noun

   A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device.

   I was told to fly out on a vector of 100 degrees to meet a strong plot of aircraft 30 miles from the coast.

Etymology

From Middle English plot, plotte, from Old English plot (“a plot of ground”), from Proto-Germanic *plataz, *platjaz (“a patch”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with 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 on or source of noun sense 5. Noun sense 9 is a back-formation from for the plot.