device vs plot

device

noun
  • Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one. 

  • A peripheral device; an item of hardware. 

  • An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb 

  • A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device. 

  • An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark. 

  • A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively. 

  • A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. 

  • An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience. 

plot

noun
  • A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device. 

  • An area or land used for building on or planting on. 

  • A plan; a purpose. 

  • Participation in any stratagem or conspiracy. 

  • Contrivance; deep reach thought; ability to plot or intrigue. 

  • Attractive physical attributes of characters involved in a story, originating from ironic juxtaposition with the original meaning (course of the story). 

  • A secret plan to achieve an end, the end or means usually being illegal or otherwise questionable. 

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

verb
  • To mark (a point on a graph, chart, etc). 

  • To conceive (a crime, misdeed etc). 

  • To trace out (a graph or diagram). 

How often have the words device and plot occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )