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
Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
In October 2023, Harvard University launched an investigation into accusations of plagiarism made against its president, Claudine Gay, concluding that her failure to credit others was unfortunate but did not meet the school’s standards for research misconduct.
—Rene J. Muller, Baltimore Sun, 5 Feb. 2024
The exchange went viral and ultimately triggered the events that led to Gay’s resignation following plagiarism charges.
—Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 5 Feb. 2024
On and on it went, with as many as five or more instances of plagiarism in every single sermon.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
That review looked into plagiarism after Sharma claimed Lin had wrongly omitted the senior researcher as an author from a manuscript built on research to which Sharma contributed.
—Angus Chen, STAT, 26 Feb. 2024
The legal definition of plagiarism is broad and ambiguous, and boils down to unacknowledged copying.
—Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024
The report comes just weeks after Gay resigned from her position as Harvard president following backlash for her testimony at a December congressional hearing about antisemitism as well as compounding allegations of plagiarism.
—Char Adams, NBC News, 31 Jan. 2024
She was also investigated for allegations of plagiarism.
—Chris Isidore, CNN, 21 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plagiarism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
1621, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Phrases Containing plagiarism
Dictionary Entries Near plagiarism
Cite this Entry
“Plagiarism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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More from Merriam-Webster on plagiarism
Nglish: Translation of plagiarism for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of plagiarism for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about plagiarism
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