plagiarism
noun
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Common Misspellings
plagarism, plagerism, plagirism
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The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize
If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.
Examples of plagiarism in a Sentence
Dr Aishah Alyammahi,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2026
Other research on high school cheating found in 2020 that 64% of 70,000 high school students across the country admitted to cheating on a test, and 58% admitted to plagiarism.
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Austin Sarat,
Fortune,
23 June 2026
Directed by Son Jae-gon and starring Gang Dong-won, Uhm Tae-goo, and Park Ji-hyun, the film tracks a faded first-generation K-pop co-ed dance trio making a reckless attempt to stage a comeback two decades after a plagiarism scandal dissolved their careers.
—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
22 June 2026
And whether teschers want to admit it or not, AI plagiarism detectors aren’t all that great, so error rates alone raise doubts about relying on them.
—
Michelle L. Quinn,
Chicago Tribune,
21 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for plagiarism
Cite this Entry
“Plagiarism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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