Complotters

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals engaged in a secret plan or conspiracy against a common adversary or goal
2. A collective that plots or schemes to achieve an agenda, often in a deceitful or treacherous manner
3. Those who conspire together, typically in private, to execute a shared, often illicit, objective

Etymology: "Complotters" is simply the plural of "complotter," and the singular is built from "complot," a plot or conspiracy, with the agent suffix "-er" attached to name a person who carries out the scheme. "Complot" itself came into English from French, where "complot" had the same sense of a secret plan against someone, and the pattern of adding "-er" to a noun to name its doer is a common one in English. The noun is a plain compound in form, so its history is short and transparent: a French loan for the plot, with an English ending for the people behind it.

Synonyms: conspirators, plotters, schemers, intriguers, colluders