plot
n. countablen. the main story of a book or movie. It can also mean a secret plan to do something bad, or a small piece of land for gardening. If you 'lose the plot,' it means you have become confused or acting crazy.
n. the sequence of events that make up a narrative; alternatively, a clandestine plan to achieve a specific, often illegal, goal. In a physical sense, refers to a small, measured area of ground.
The movie has a very exciting plot.
The police discovered a secret plot to steal the paintings from the museum at night.
While the characters were well-developed, the plot relied too heavily on convenient coincidences to resolve the central conflict in the final act.
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”), and possibly Gothic 𐍀𐌻𐌰𐍄 (plat, “a patch, rags”). See also plat. See also complot for an influence on or source of noun sense 5. Noun sense 9 is a back-formation from for the plot.
Commonly used in the idiom 'lose the plot' to describe someone losing their grip on reality or a situation.
The plot of the land is small.The plot of land is small.When referring to a piece of ground, 'plot' is usually followed directly by 'of land' rather than using 'the' before land.