Scheming

How to spell scheming

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce scheming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scheming mean?

1. adjectiveGiven to making secret or cunning plans to gain an advantage.
2. verbPresent participle of scheme: planning something secretly, often to deceive or gain an advantage.

Scheming in a sentence

• adjective

  His scheming business partner quietly rewrote the contract in his own favour.

• verb

  The rival directors were scheming to seize control of the board.

• adjective

  The novel centres on a scheming aunt who manipulates the entire family.

• verb

  While everyone slept, the thieves were scheming their escape route.

Where does scheming come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word descends from scheme, which English took in the early 1600s from the Latin schema, itself borrowed from the Greek skhema, meaning 'form, figure, or appearance'. In Greek the root was tied to ekhein, 'to have or hold', so a skhema was the shape or arrangement something held. English first used scheme for a diagram or an orderly plan, and only later did it pick up the shadier sense of a crafty or secret plot, which is the flavour 'scheming' usually carries today. The spelling keeps the Greek 'sch' cluster and the silent-feeling 'che', which is the trap: it is pronounced 'skeem', not 'shem', because the original Greek 'ch' was a hard k sound. The same skhema root also gives us 'schematic' and the geometry term 'scheme', a useful reminder of why the unexpected 'ch' belongs there.

How the word is built

• scheme (from Greek skhema: form, plan)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)