plagiarize

verb

pla·gia·rize ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz

also -jē-ə-

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

plagiarizer noun

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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 plagiarize in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web And, going back to the point about these works kind of recycling and plagiarizing each other: all the work has been done to make the Jews your scapegoat. —

Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 19 Sep. 2023 Though the book was widely hailed, its success was marred by the revelation that Professor Ogletree had inadvertently plagiarized six paragraphs from a book on the same subject by a Yale law professor, Jack M. Balkin. —

Clay Risen, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2023 After several paragraphs were found to have been plagiarized from a work by legal scholar Jack Balkin, Mr. Ogletree issued an apology, saying that two research assistants had accidentally inserted the passage into the manuscript without attribution. —

Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2023 Still, the detectors raise hopes for gaining the advantage over paper mills, which churn out bogus manuscripts containing text, data, and images partly or wholly plagiarized or fabricated, often massaged by ghost writers. —

Byjeffrey Brainard, science.org, 9 May 2023 In addition, the rise of Chat GPT has sparked criticism that students could use artificial intelligence in higher or K-12 education to cheat or plagiarize during tests and exams. —

Fox News, 9 July 2023 Ed Sheeran was found not guilty of plagiarizing a Marvin Gaye classic. —

USA TODAY, 5 May 2023 At least two other Justices stand accused of perjuring themselves both before the Senate and in individual office meetings in respect of their attitudes toward Roe v. Wade, while another stands accused of having plagiarized in writing a dissertation for an advanced degree. —

Robert Hockett, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023 Now come accusations that Dias plagiarized much of his Ph.D. thesis, completed in 2013 at Washington State University (WSU). —

Bydaniel Garisto, science.org, 13 Apr. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plagiarize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.