machination

noun

mach·​i·​na·​tion ˌma-kə-ˈnā-shən 

ˌma-shə-

1

: an act of machinating

2

: a scheming or crafty action or artful design intended to accomplish some usually evil end

backstage machinations … that have dominated the film industry

—Peter Bogdanovich

Synonyms

• conspiracy
• design
• intrigue
• plot
• scheme

Choose the Right Synonym for machination

plot, intrigue, machination, conspiracy, cabal mean a plan secretly devised to accomplish an evil or treacherous end.

plot implies careful foresight in planning a complex scheme.

an assassination plot

intrigue suggests secret underhanded maneuvering in an atmosphere of duplicity.

backstairs intrigue

machination implies a contriving of annoyances, injuries, or evils by indirect means.

the machinations of a party boss

conspiracy implies a secret agreement among several people usually involving treason or great treachery.

a conspiracy to fix prices

cabal typically applies to political intrigue involving persons of some eminence.

a cabal among powerful senators

Examples of machination in a Sentence

incredibly complicated machinations to assassinate the president that inevitably failed

Recent Examples on the Web

What Andor did differently was focus less on big names from Star Wars mythology and more on the actual machinations that occur when people are fed up with oppression, a narrative angle whose urgency connected with critics and audiences. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 11 June 2025

Our family manor was on the outskirts of the King’s territory, far from most of the nobility and day-to-day machinations of court, its customs, and norms. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 13 May 2025

The legal and regulatory machinations have held up Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 11 May 2025

Last year, the Court found that Google's reticular machinations were designed to annihilate its competitors' ability to scale up. —Joel Thayer, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for machination

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation