scheme
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skiːm/
rhymes: -iːm
Forms: form: schemes
Etymology: Borrowed from Medieval Latin schēma (“figure, form”), from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “I hold”). Doublet of schema. Compare sketch.
Senses: glosses: An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
examples: text: a blue case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity
ref: 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
topics: astrology
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
examples: text: The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
ref: c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects:
text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […].
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
synonyms: word: blueprint
word: blueprint
word: design
word: plan
word: plot
word: project
word: proposal
word: scheme
glosses: A systematic plan of future action.
synonyms: conspiracy
intrigue
machination
glosses: A plot or secret, devious plan.
examples: text: the appearance and outward scheme of things
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
text: such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity
ref: 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of My. Tho. Bennett:
text: arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy
ref: 1754, Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will:
text: The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
glosses: An orderly combination of related parts.
examples: April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey
to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France
synonyms: word: plot
word: schematic
word: chart
word: design
word: diagram
word: map
word: graph
word: graphic
word: plan
word: plot
word: schematic
word: scheme
glosses: A chart or diagram of a system or object.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A mathematical structure that generalizes the notion of an algebraic variety in several ways, such as taking account of multiplicities and allowing "varieties" defined over any commutative ring. Formally, a locally ringed space that admits a covering by open sets, each of which is isomorphic to an affine scheme (i.e. the spectrum of some commutative ring).
examples: text: It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.
ref: 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 101:
text: “You can’t really say to the kids in the schemes [Scottish council estates]^([sic]): don’t do drugs, they’ll wreck your life, you’ll never get a job or a house or buy nice things.”
ref: 2023 July 2, David Barnett, quoting Irvine Welsh, “‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
synonyms: estate
project
glosses: A council housing estate.
glosses: Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
qualifier: pensions
glosses: A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.
Derived terms: axiom scheme
classification scheme
collective investment scheme
colour scheme
grand scheme
grand scheme of things
group scheme
Horner's scheme
lift scheme
Mississippi Scheme
pilot scheme
Ponzi scheme
pyramid scheme
rhyme scheme
schematization
scheme arch
scheme of studies
scheme of things
scheme theory
schemie