What is Plagiarism? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines plagiarism as using another person's words or ideas without properly citing them. Plagiarism in academic writing refers to the use of passages, concepts, or data without properly attributing the source. This can actually indicate a number of various things. Plagiarism is one of the students' biggest mistakes or intentional wrongdoing at any level of education. It is the direct copying and pasting from any source. Content is usually considered to be plagiarized if 3 or 4 consecutive words match from any online or offline source. Th...