• Today's Word

Machination

🔊 Listen to the word Machination

mak-ih-NAY-shun

Definition

(noun) A crafty scheme or cunning plot, usually intended to achieve something sinister or underhanded.

Example

The board members were completely unaware of the CEO’s quiet machinations to force the company into a merger.

Word Origin

From Latin machinatio — “a device, scheme, or contrivance” — derived from machina (“machine, device, trick”), which came from Greek makhana (“instrument, engine”). The same root gives us “machine” and “mechanical.” A machination, then, is quite literally a device — just one built from intention and deception rather than gears and levers.

Fun Fact

The word “machination” is deeply embedded in Shakespeare’s tragedies — Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet are all essentially machination plays, where hidden scheming drives the action. Iago in Othello is often cited as the greatest literary schemer — a character who plots so brilliantly and relentlessly that scholars have debated his true motivations for centuries. The word’s mechanical root is quite apt: Shakespeare’s villains construct their plots with almost clockwork precision, each move calculated to trigger the next.