plagiarize

verb pla·gia·rize \ ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz also -jē-ə- \

|Updated on: 13 Jul 2018

Examples: plagiarize in a Sentence

Editor's Note: The Kidnapping Roots of plagiarize

Definition of plagiarize

plagiarized; plagiarizing

: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb

: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

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plagiarizer

noun

See plagiarize defined for English-language learners

See plagiarize defined for kids

Examples of plagiarize in a Sentence

He plagiarized a classmate's report.
She plagiarized from an article she read on the Internet.

Recent Examples of plagiarize from the Web

The Girls came out in June 2016 to wide acclaim — but the following year, her ex-boyfriend Chaz Reetz-Laiolo filed a lawsuit accusing her of plagiarizing the book from his work.

— gabriella paiella, The Cut, "Judge Dismisses Plagiarism Lawsuit Against The Girls Author Emma Cline," 2 July 2018
Apparently the kid is a remarkable writer and literary analyst, but was held back the previous year for allegedly plagiarizing a paper.

— refinery29.com, "The Affair Season 4, Episode 1 Recap: You're The Earthquake I've Been Waiting On," 18 June 2018
Pirating is another term for stealing or plagiarizing, something every school board would support, right?

— scott springer, Cincinnati.com, "Scott Springer column: Stop piling on, looking for blame in the high school name game," 15 June 2018
But historians have claimed that Glasse ruthlessly plagiarized her recipes, lifting as many as 263 dishes from a single earlier source.

— laignee barron, Time, "Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Hannah Glasse, the Julia Child of the 18th Century," 27 Mar. 2018
The bigger point is thus: Artists like Iggy Azalea know they can be financially rewarded for appropriating and plagiarizing cultural symbols without attribution, and that is a problem with our entertainment institutions.

— connie wang, refinery29.com, "I’ve Written About Cultural Appropriation For 10 Years. Here’s What I Got Wrong.," 24 May 2018
Hindt most recently was accused of plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation at the University of Houston.

— brooke a. lewis, Houston Chronicle, "Katy ISD board set to meet for first time after Lance Hindt announced retirement," 21 May 2018
One Katy parent, Sean Dolan, has used a website to step up criticism of Hindt, questioning whether there was plagiarized material in Hindt's 2012 doctoral dissertation at the University of Houston.

— mike glenn, Houston Chronicle, "Katy ISD board approves legal support for embattled superintendent," 11 May 2018
Back in 2016, during the Republican National Convention, now First Lady Melania Trump plagiarized an entire paragraph from a speech given by former First Lady Michelle Obama.

— lisa ryan, The Cut, "Melania Trump’s New ‘Be Best’ Booklet Basically Copies an Obama FTC Pamphlet," 8 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'plagiarize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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.