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
Nicole Narea, Vox, 15 Aug. 2024
During her first convention speech in 2016, the former first lady was accused of plagiarism, lifting portions of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic convention speech.
—Maegan Vazquez, Washington Post, 13 July 2024
Such overreliance is likely to promote questionable research practices, including hypothesizing after the results are known, or HARKing; splitting a single set of data into several papers, known as salami slicing; data manipulation; and plagiarism.
—Lonni Besançon, Discover Magazine, 11 July 2024
There were all these kind of plagiarisms or homages to Soap in the show.
—Denise Martin, Vulture, 2 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for plagiarism 
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.
Dictionary Entries Near plagiarism
Cite this Entry
“Plagiarism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
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