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The word plagiarism comes from a Latin word meaning what?

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plagiarism

American  

[play-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-] / ˈpleɪ dʒəˌrɪz əm, -dʒi əˌrɪz- /

noun

• plagiarisms
  plural

1. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author.

   It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne.

   Synonyms:

   cribbing, borrowing, theft, piracy, infringement, appropriation

2. a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation.

   “These two manuscripts are clearly plagiarisms,” the editor said, tossing them angrily on the floor.

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plagiarism British  

/ ˈpleɪdʒəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. the act of plagiarizing

2. something plagiarized

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plagiarism Cultural  

1. Literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.

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Discover More

Similar theft in music or other arts is also called plagiarism.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• plagiarist
  noun
• plagiaristic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• plagiarisms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of plagiarism

First recorded in 1615–25; plagiar(y) + -ism

Explanation

When you rip off someone else's ideas or work and pretend it's your own, that's plagiarism. There's a fine line between borrowing and stealing — between plagiarism and theft — and it's often open to debate what actually constitutes an outright taking of someone's material. As Einstein once said, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." From the Latin word for "kidnapped," when you plagiarize, you are being an intellectual thief, kidnapping someone else's ideas or words for your own purposes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plagiarism plagiarisms

But the suspicions about him were further fed when evidence emerged of plagiarism in a newspaper column and a short story he wrote before the publication of his novel.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

The latest detectors no longer compare text with text, to see if there has been plagiarism.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Both jobs entailed tedious rewrite work that would have fit into Mr. Posner’s capacious definition of plagiarism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

The 41-year-old had faced allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

In a sense this process, given the fancy title ‘neo-classicism’ by music historians, was at times nothing more elaborate than plagiarism.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

That a lot of these supposed plagiarisms were things in speeches, or I guess also in books.

From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2013

I doubt that a single person could track down all the plagiarisms in QR Markham's spy novel Assassin of Secrets; but a group certainly could and did, and with remarkable speed.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2012

Now--after New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was caught in a string of plagiarisms and fabrications, ultimately leading to a staff revolt and the resignation of Times executive editor Howell Raines--it seems prescient.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mrs. Sheridan, who has read the book, finds it a display of sentimentality, abounding in super-adjectives, containing many plagiarisms, "the outpourings of a gushing school girl."

From Time Magazine Archive

If you think so, by adding it to the other plagiarisms of the same author, noted in some of your former numbers, you will confer a great honour on A SCHOOLBOY.

From Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 by Various

Related Words

• falsification
• infringement
• piracy