n.
    - a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful.
- the main sequence of events in a play, novel, or film.
- a small piece of ground marked out for building, gardening, etc.
- a graph showing the relation between two variables. ▸chiefly US a diagram, chart, or map. 
v.
 (plots, plotting, plotted)
   - secretly make plans to carry out (something illegal or harmful).
- devise the plot of (a play, novel, or film).
- mark (a route or position) on a chart. ▸mark out or allocate (points) on a graph. ▸make (a curve) by marking out a number of such points. ▸illustrate by use of a graph. 
Phrase
  
    - lose the plot
 Brit. informal lose one's ability to understand or cope with what is happening.
- the plot thickens
 see thicken.
 
  Derivative
  
    - plotless adj.
- plotter n.
- plotty adj. (informal).
 
  Etymology
  OE (in sense 3 of the noun), of unknown origin; the sense ‘secret plan’ is assoc. with OFr. complot ‘dense crowd, secret project’.