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Plot vs Trace - What's the difference?

plot | trace |

As verbs the difference between plot and trace

is that plot is to conceive (a crime, etc) while trace is .

As a noun plot

is the course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.

plot

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before.
  • An area or land used for building on or planting on.
  • A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device.
  • A secret plan to achieve an end, the end or means usually being illegal or otherwise questionable.
    • The plot would have enabled them to get a majority on the board.
    The assassination of Lincoln was part of a larger plot .
  • * Shakespeare
    • I have overheard a plot of death.
  • * Addison
    • O, think what anxious moments pass between / The birth of plots and their last fatal periods!
  • Contrivance; deep reach thought; ability to plot or intrigue.
  • * Denham
    • a man of much plot
  • Participation in any stratagem or conspiracy.
  • * Milton
    • And when Christ saith, Who marries the divorced commits adultery, it is to be understood, if he had any plot in the divorce.
  • A plan; a purpose.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • no other plot in their religion but serve God and save their souls

    Synonyms

    * (course of a story) storyline * (area) parcel * (secret plan) conspiracy, scheme

    Derived terms

    * Gunpowder Plot * lose the plot * plotless * subplot * the plot thickens/plot thickens

    Verb

    (plott)
  • To conceive (a crime, etc).
    • They had ''plotted a robbery.
  • To trace out (a graph or diagram).
    • They ''plotted'' the number of edits per day.
  • To mark (a point on a graph, chart, etc).
    • Every five minutes they ''plotted'' their position.
  • * Carew
    • This treatise plotteth down Cornwall as it now standeth.
  • To conceive a crime, misdeed, etc.
    • ''They were plotting against the king.

    Synonyms

    * (contrive) becast * (sense) scheme

    Derived terms

    * replot

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs ----

    trace

    English

    (wikipedia trace)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) trace, traas, from (etyl) , from the verb (see below).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of tracing.
  • A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
  • A very small amount.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=7 citation , passage=The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.}}
  • (electronics) An electric current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
  • An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
  • One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.
  • (fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.
  • The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
  • (mathematics) The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
    • Derived terms
    * downtrace, uptrace
    Synonyms
    * (mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal) track, trail * (small amount) see also .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) tracen, from (etyl) tracer, .

    Verb

  • To follow the trail of.
  • * Milton
    • I feel thy power to trace the ways / Of highest agents.
    (Cowper)
  • To follow the history of.
  • * T. Burnet
    • You may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=July 19 , author=Ella Davies , title=Sticks insects survive one million years without sex , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=They traced the ancient lineages of two species to reveal the insects' lengthy history of asexual reproduction.}}
  • To draw or sketch lightly or with care.
    • He carefully traced the outlines of the old building before him.
  • To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.
  • (obsolete) To copy; to imitate.
  • * Denham
    • That servile path thou nobly dost decline, / Of tracing word, and line by line.
  • (obsolete) To walk; to go; to travel.
  • * Spenser
    • Not wont on foot with heavy arms to trace .
  • (obsolete) To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
  • * Shakespeare
    • We do trace this alley up and down.
    Related terms
    * tracing

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----