schema

/ˈskimə/

/ˈskimə/

Other forms: schemata

If you were just commissioned to modernize your town's library, the first thing you'll make is a schema: an outline of your plan for reinventing libraries.

Schema sounds like scheme, but they have different nuances. You scheme to snatch a cookie from the jar. A schema is more of a master plan. It can also just be an organized vision. If you have a master concept about how the world works, that's your world organization schema. Someone with an insanely big idea about how to change the world has "a grand schema." Now she just needs to make a practical schema for actually making that change.

Definitions of schema

1. noun

   a schematic or preliminary plan
   synonyms: outline, scheme

   type of:

   plan, program, programme

   a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished
2. noun

   an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world
   synonyms: scheme

   type of:

   internal representation, mental representation, representation

   a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image