plagiarize

play

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

Definition of plagiarize

plagiarized

;

plagiarizing

transitive verb
: 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

plagiarizer

noun

See plagiarize defined for English-language learners

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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

WTVC recently found that the unknown writer might have plagiarized from another obituary for a woman named Dolores Aguilar, which ran in 2008 in the Vallejo Times-Herald in California.

— katina beniaris, Country Living, "This Great Grandmother's Shocking Obituary Went Viral for All the Wrong Reasons," 10 July 2017
First daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump must give a deposition in a lawsuit claiming her clothing brand plagiarized a shoe design, a district judge ruled June 23.

— alana abramson, PEOPLE.com, "Ivanka Trump Ordered to Testify in Lawsuit Claiming Her Brand Plagiarized a Shoe Design," 26 June 2017
First daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump must give a deposition in a lawsuit claiming her clothing brand plagiarized a shoe design, a district judge ruled June 23.

— alana abramson, PEOPLE.com, "Ivanka Trump Ordered to Testify in Lawsuit Claiming Her Brand Plagiarized a Shoe Design," 26 June 2017
First daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump must give a deposition in a lawsuit claiming her clothing brand plagiarized a shoe design, a district judge ruled June 23.

— alana abramson, Fortune, "Ivanka Trump Ordered to Testify in Lawsuit Claiming Her Brand Plagiarized a Shoe Design," 25 June 2017
The letter alleged that Pouncey plagiarized his dissertation and used state employees on state time to help write it about eight years ago.

— mike cason, AL.com, "State BOE to privately discuss report on anonymous Pouncey complaint," 20 June 2017
A review by CNN's KFILE found that Clarke plagiarized sections of his 2013 master's thesis on US security, failing to correctly attribute his sources at least 47 times.

— jennifer hansler, CNN, "Sheriff David Clarke no longer under consideration for DHS job," 18 June 2017
A recent CNN investigation found that Clarke had plagiarized parts of his 2013 master’s thesis on U.S. security, as well.

— chas danner, Daily Intelligencer, "Controversial Sheriff David Clarke Will Not Take Homeland Security Post," 18 June 2017
But there have been no allegations that data was altered, plagiarized or fabricated, and no one’s safety was threatened — the kind of misconduct that usually leads to such severe penalties in scientific research.

— lenny bernstein, Washington Post, "Millions of dollars’ worth of research in limbo at NIH," 4 June 2017

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.