Synonyms for intrigue

Most common

1. Chicanery

Other

love affair, liaison, amour, web, cobweb, intrigo dated

1. Plot

2. Fascinate

fascinate, bewitch, enchant, spellbind

n. 1
A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem; the practice of engaging in hidden schemes.
His betrayal was the beginning of a complex intrigue intended to give him control of the company.
v. 1
To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
v. 2
To arouse the interest of; to fascinate.

Plural: intrigues → chicaneries, trickeries, finesses, artifices…
Past participle: intrigued
e.g. intrigued → plotted, schemed, conspiracied, conspired…

finesse It could have been executed with more finesse.
trickery The ones who lack courage, exceed in trickery.
artifice The language of truth must be, with no doubt, simple and without artifice.
chicanery Dennis was known for chicanery and sleight-of-hand.
web The native language is now used on many web-sites.

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: web¹
4 letters: plot¹, ruse¹, wile¹
5 letters: angle², craft¹, amour², cabal², guile¹
6 letters: design², scheme¹, deceit², devise², cobweb²
7 letters: liaison³, finesse², enchant², bewitch², connive², complot, intrigo
8 letters: maneuver³, trickery³, conspire³, artifice³, contrive²
9 letters: deception³, manoeuvre, fascinate³, stratagem³, chicanery⁴, machinate, spellbind
10 letters: conspiracy⁴
11 letters: contrivance³, machination⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (angle² = 2 syllables).