• IPA: /skiːm/

scheme (plural schemes)

1. A systematic plan of future action.
   • c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects

     The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

2. A plot or secret, devious plan.
3. An orderly combination of related parts.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690)​, [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242 ↗:

     the appearance and outward scheme of things

   • 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of My. Tho. Bennett

     such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity

   • 1754, Jonathan Edwards (theologian), The Freedom of the Will

     arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy

   • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:

4. A chart or diagram of a system or object.
   • April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey

     to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France

5. (mathematics) A type of topological space.
6. (UK, chiefly, Scotland) A council housing estate.
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 101:

     It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.

7. (rhetoric) An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
8. (astrology) A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
   • 1815 February 23, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], OCLC 742335644 ↗:

9. (internet) Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
10. (UK, pensions) A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.

• (a systematic plan of future action) blueprint

• French: plan
• German: Programm, Plan, Projekt
• Italian: schema, piano, progetto, programma
• Portuguese: planejamento, esquema
• Russian: план
• Spanish: régimen, proyecto

• French: combine, machination
• Italian: macchinazione, stratagemma, intrigo
• Portuguese: esquema
• Russian: план
• Spanish: ardid, artimaña, maquinación, estratagema, treta, intriga, urdimbre

• French: schéma
• German: Schema
• Italian: schema
• Portuguese: esquema
• Russian: структу́ра
• Spanish: esquema

• French: schéma
• German: Übersicht, Schema, Bild
• Italian: schema
• Portuguese: esquema
• Russian: схе́ма
• Spanish: esquema

• French: schéma
• Portuguese: esquema
• Russian: схе́ма

scheme (schemes, present participle scheming; past and past participle schemed)

1. (intransitive) To plot, or contrive a plan.
2. (transitive) To plan; to contrive.
   • 1908, Bohemian Magazine (volume 15, page 381)

     He schemed a plot. He made use of the hotel's stationery to write a letter.

• French: conspirer, tramer
• German: etwas aushecken
• Russian: плани́ровать
• Spanish: maquinar, tramar, urdir

• IPA: /skiːm/

1. A programming language, one of the two major dialects of Lisp.