different between plot vs tract

English

Etymology

From Middle English plot, plotte, from Old English plot (“a plot of ground”), from Proto-Germanic *plataz, *platjaz (“a patch”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Middle Low German plet (“patch, strip of cloth, rags”), German Bletz (“rags, bits, strip of land”), Gothic ???????????????????? (plats, “a patch, rags”). See also plat. See also complot for an influence on or source of the "secret plan" sense.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pl?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pl?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

plot (plural plots)

1. (authorship) The course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means. [from 1640s]

   Synonym: storyline

   • c. 1725, Alexander Pope, View of the Epic Poem

2. An area or land used for building on or planting on. [from 1550s]

   Synonym: parcel

3. A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device.
4. A secret plan to achieve an end, the end or means usually being illegal or otherwise questionable. [from 1580s]

   Synonyms: conspiracy, scheme

5. Contrivance; deep reach thought; ability to plot or intrigue.
   • a. 1669, John Denham, On Mr Thomas Killigrew's Return from Venice, and Mr William Murrey's from Scotland

6. Participation in any stratagem or conspiracy.
7. A plan; a purpose.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

plot (third-person singular simple present plots, present participle plotting, simple past and past participle plotted)

1. (transitive) To conceive (a crime, etc).

2. (transitive) To trace out (a graph or diagram).

3. (transitive) To mark (a point on a graph, chart, etc).
   • 1602, Richard Carew, Survey on Cornwall

4. (intransitive) To conceive a crime, misdeed, etc.

Synonyms

• (contrive): becast
• (conceive a crime, etc): scheme
• (an area of land): lot

Derived terms

• replot

Translations

Anagrams

• OLTP, PTOL, lopt, polt

Albanian

Etymology

From plotë.

Adverb

plot

1. full, fully, full of

Czech

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *plot?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?plot]

Noun

plot m

1. fence

Declension

Derived terms

• živý plot m

Related terms

• oplotit

Further reading

• plot in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• plot in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

plot

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of plotten
2. imperative of plotten

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plo/
• Rhymes: -o

Noun

plot m (plural plots)

1. traffic cone
2. cone used in slalom

Luxembourgish

Verb

plot

1. third-person singular present indicative of ploen
2. second-person plural present indicative of ploen
3. second-person plural imperative of ploen

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl?t/

Noun

plot f

1. genitive plural of plota

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *plot?.

Noun

pl?t m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. fence

Declension

Spanish

Noun

plot m (plural plots)

1. (story-telling) plot

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?ækt/
• Homophone: tracked
• Rhymes: -ækt

Etymology 1

From tractate, from Latin tractatus, or borrowed from Latin tractus, the perfect passive participle of trah?. Doublet of trait.

Noun

tract (plural tracts)

1. An area or expanse.
   • a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth

   • 1662, Thomas Fuller, History of the Worthies of England

     small tracks of ground

2. A series of connected body organs, as in the digestive tract.
3. A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
4. A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit

     The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.

5. A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
6. Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XIV, Henry of Essex

     Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in Lailand Hundred, involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time […]

7. Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
8. (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Older to this entry?)

9. (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Simulation and Dissimulation

     The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.

10. (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.

    • The Prophet Telemus […] mark'd the Tracts of every Bird that flew

11. (obsolete) Track; trace.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

      But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.

12. (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
    • 1613, William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act I, Scene I

      The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.

Synonyms

• (series of connected body organs): system

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Latin tractus, the participle stem of trahere (“to pull, drag”).

Verb

tract (third-person singular simple present tracts, present participle tracting, simple past and past participle tracted)

1. (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

     Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract?

2. (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

Anagrams

• T-cart

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English tract.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?akt/

Noun

tract m (plural tracts)

1. flyer, circular, pamphlet

Derived terms

• tracter

Further reading

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