different between ambition vs scheme

English

Etymology

From Middle English ambicion, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambiti? (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambi? (“I go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æm?b?.??n/

Noun

ambition (countable and uncountable, plural ambitions)

1. (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
   • 1756, Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society

     the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres

2. (countable) An object of an ardent desire.

3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
4. (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
5. (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ambition.

Related terms

• ambience
• ambient
• ambit
• ambitious
• ambitionist

Translations

Verb

ambition (third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned)

1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
   • 1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus

     Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.

Further reading

• ambition in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ambition in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Danish

Noun

ambition c

1. ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiøs

Further reading

• “ambition” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ambition” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Finnish

Noun

ambition

1. Genitive singular form of ambitio.

French

Etymology

From Latin ambiti?

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.bi.sj??/

Noun

ambition f (plural ambitions)

1. ambition (feeling)

Related terms

• ambitieux
• ambitionner

Further reading

• “ambition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

ambition c

1. en ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiös

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin sch?ma (“figure, form”), from Ancient Greek ????? (skhêma, “form, shape”), from ??? (ékh?, “I hold”). Doublet of schema. Compare sketch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ski?m/
• Rhymes: -i?m

Noun

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.

   • 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, The Freedom of the Will

     arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy
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 geometric object.
6. (Britain, 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.
9. (Internet) Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
10. (Britain, pensions) A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.

Usage notes

In the US, generally has devious connotations, while in the UK, frequently used as a neutral term for projects: “The road is closed due to a pavement-widening scheme.”

Synonyms

• (a systematic plan of future action): blueprint

Derived terms

• colour scheme
• pilot scheme

Descendants

• ? Malay: skim

Translations

Verb

scheme (third-person singular simple present schemes, present participle scheming, simple 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.

Translations

References

• Silva Rhetoricae

Anagrams

• Meches

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?m?/

Verb

scheme

1. (reflexive) to be ashamed

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Middle Low German

Etymology

From Old Saxon skimo (“shadow”). Originally masculine.

Pronunciation

• Stem vowel: ?¹
  • (originally) IPA^(key): /sk??m?/

Noun

scheme m or f

1. A shadow, a shade; a darkness created by an object obstructing light
2. A shadow, a shade; something which is barely perceptible or not physical

   ...lose se van der walt der dusternisse unde van deme scheme des dodes. (" ...free them from the power of darkness and the shadow of death." )

3. A shimmer; a soft or weak occurrence of light
4. twilight; the lighting conditions at dusk and dawn
5. A face mask
6. aureola

Alternative forms

• sceme