plagiarism
Americannoun
-
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
-
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.
noun
-
the act of plagiarizing
-
something plagiarized
Discover More
Similar theft in music or other arts is also called plagiarism.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing plagiarism
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Computer Science and Technology - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Instead, the so-called autopsy was a shambolic train wreck of missing paragraphs, factual errors, and apparent plagiarism.
From Slate • May 23, 2026
And so had Johnson, a 38-year-old former journalist who turned to social media after being embroiled in plagiarism scandals at BuzzFeed and the Independent Journal Review.
From Salon • Apr. 15, 2026
When the public hears about scientific fraud, the focus often falls on isolated cases involving falsified data, plagiarism or retracted studies.
From Science Daily • Mar. 7, 2026
In early 2024 the company upset some staff at Business Insider by initiating a review of articles detailing plagiarism allegations against former professor Neri Oxman, the wife of hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
