complot

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French complot (“crowd-, plot”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒt
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌplɒt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /kəmˈplɒt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

complot (plural complots)

1. (archaic) A plot (involving more than one person), conspiracy
   • c. 1582-1592, Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedie, Act 3, Scene 2:

     LOR. Now to confirme the complot thou hast cast
     Of all these practices, Ile spread the watch,
     Vpon precise commandement from the king
     Strongly to guard the place where Pedringano
     This night shall murder haples Serberine.

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     AARON: […] / For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,
     Acts of black night, abominable deeds,
     Complots of mischief, treason, villainies,
     Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd: / […]

   • 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 164:

     The young advertising agent stood against the fence in silent horror, his heart bumping heavily. His hands were clammy, his feet seemed to have grown larger and taken root. What damnable complot was this?

Verb

complot (third-person singular simple present complots, present participle complotting, simple past and past participle complotted)

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To plot together; conspire.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 1, scene 1]:

     BOLINGBROKE. […] Besides, I say and will in battle prove,
     Or here, or elsewhere to the furthest verge
     That ever was survey'd by English eye,
     That all the treasons for these eighteen years
     Complotted and contrived in this land,
     Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.

Derived terms

• complotment
• complotter

Related terms

• plot

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from French complot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kumˈplɔt]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencian) [komˈplɔt]
• Rhymes: -ɔt

Noun

complot m (plural complots)

1. conspiracy

Further reading

• “complot” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “complot”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “complot” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “complot” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Alternative forms

• (before 1996) komplot

Etymology

From French complot (“crowd-, plot”), from Middle French complot (“crowd-, plot”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔmˈplɔt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧plot
• Rhymes: -ɔt

Noun

complot n (plural complotten, diminutive complotje n)

1. conspiracy

Synonyms

• samenzwering

Derived terms

• complotdenker
• complottheoreticus
• complottheorie

Descendants

• Negerhollands: komplot
• → Indonesian: komplot
• → Papiamentu: kòmplòt

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French complot (“crowd-, plot”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.plo/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

complot m (plural complots)

1. plot; conspiracy

Derived terms

• comploter
• théorie du complot

Descendants

• → Catalan: complot
• → Danish: komplot
• → Galician: complot
• → German: Komplott
• → Italian: complotto
• → Portuguese: complô
• → Spanish: complot
• → Turkish: komplo

Further reading

• “complot”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

complot m (plural complots)

1. plot; conspiracy; complot

Descendants

• → English: complot

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French complot.

Noun

complot n (plural comploturi)

1. complot, conspiracy

Related terms

• complota
• complotare
• complotat (past participle of "complota")
• complotist

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French complot (“plot, conspiracy”), from Middle French complot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komˈplot/ [kõmˈplot̪]
• Rhymes: -ot
• Syllabification: com‧plot

Noun

complot m (plural complots)

1. (colloquial) plot, conspiracy

Further reading

• “complot”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014