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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
Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 May 2026
Continue reading … COPY AND PASTE — New York Magazine columnist accused of plagiarism by fellow reporters, triggers internal review.
—FOXNews.com, 18 May 2026
Much of the conversation about AI in universities still centers on cheating, plagiarism detection and policy compliance.
—Shannon McKeen, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
But when significant chunks of someone's writing appears word-for-word without quotation marks, it is generally considered plagiarism, according to Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
—Bobby Allyn, NPR, 17 May 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 12 Jun. 2026.
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