SCHEME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scheme mean? 

• SCHEME (noun)
  The noun SCHEME has 5 senses:

1. an elaborate and systematic plan of action

2. a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery

3. a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole

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

5. a schematic or preliminary plan

  Familiarity information: SCHEME used as a noun is common.

• SCHEME (verb)
  The verb SCHEME has 2 senses:

1. form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

2. devise a system or form a scheme for

  Familiarity information: SCHEME used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCHEME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An elaborate and systematic plan of action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

scheme; strategy

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"):

counterterrorism (a strategy intended to prevent or counter terrorism)

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

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dodge; dodging; scheme

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

falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

scheme; system

Context example:

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

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)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

schema; scheme

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 5

Meaning:

A schematic or preliminary plan

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

outline; schema; scheme

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)

• SCHEME (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scheme    ... he / she / it schemes   
Past simple: schemed   
Past participle: schemed   
-ing form: scheming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

connive; intrigue; scheme

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)

 Context examples 

In a localist scheme, an individual neuron would code for one memory, and each memory would be linked to the activity of one neuron.

(Storing memories of recent events, NIH)

But is not this a sudden scheme?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The scheme was soon repeated to Henry.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It has no place in your scheme of things.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It includes entities classified according to the French-American-British classification scheme.

(Acute Myeloid Leukemia Not Otherwise Specified, NCI Thesaurus)

I had seven different schemes for getting a glimpse of that telegram, but I could hardly hope to succeed the very first time.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My dear cousin, abandon your scheme of marriage—forget it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I say that we should be scheming how to get out of it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It would be going only to multiply trouble to the others, and increase his own distress; and a much better scheme followed and was acted upon.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Henry was greatly honoured and very happy, and Catherine was quite delighted with the scheme.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)