Definition: (verb) Take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech; of intellectual property.
Synonyms: lift.
Usage: At the beginning of the semester, the teacher warned her students not to plagiarize their reports because she would find out and fail them.
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Humanity’s origin story has gotten increasingly tangled in recent years: New discoveries suggest that Homo sapiens interacted and interbred with other species and ventured out of Africa in more than one wave. Researchers have compared the ancient world … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
One of the largest earthquakes ever to strike the US—and possibly one of the strongest earthquakes in human history—the New Madrid earthquake is said to have made the Mississippi River run backwards, permanently changing its course and redefining state boundaries. Though it struck a sparsely populated area near modern-day New Madrid, Missouri, the quake was felt across the country, ringing church bells as far away as Boston, Massachusetts. What large lake did it create in Tennessee? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
When the young Peter II of Russia died without an heir, the Supreme Privy Council offered the throne to his distant cousin, Anna, under the condition that she would place the real power in the council’s hands. She initially agreed, but then tore up the conditions, abolished the council, and restored the autocracy. She occupied herself with extravagant amusements and relied on her lover and foreign advisors to manage the state. What happened to the infant grandnephew she named as her successor? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Lizards, frogs, lampreys, and some fish species possess a unique organ known as a third, or parietal, eye. Though referred to as an “eye,” this photoreceptive organ does not “see” in the same way that a standard eye does. Instead, it uses a different biochemical method of detecting light than normal eyes and helps regulate circadian rhythms and hormone production for thermoregulation. The parietal eye is associated with what gland that humans, too, possess? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Definition: (adjective) Characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation.
Synonyms: brainish, impetuous, tearaway, hotheaded, impulsive.
Usage: This madcap quest of mine, was it not understood between us…to be a fantastic whim, a poetical wild-goose chase, conceived entirely as an excuse for being some time in each other's company?
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Say hello to an orca, and it might say hello back — or at least try to. An international team of researchers, working with two orcas at an aquarium in France, have found that the whales were able to replicate the sounds of human speech, including … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
After US Marshall Frank Dalton was killed in the line of duty, three of his nine brothers—Bob, Grat, and Emmett—became lawmen themselves. However, they soon decided that they preferred the other side of the law. Aided by another Dalton brother, Bill, the gang held up its first train in 1891. It did not go well. Undeterred, the brothers embarked on a train-robbing spree across much of the western US, which ended when the townspeople of Coffeyville, Kansas, saw through what unsuccessful disguise? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The Sàmi people are indigenous to the arctic area of the Nordic countries. At the end of the 1800s, the Norwegian government implemented policies of Norwegianization. However, attitudes changed by the mid-1950s, and Norwegian authorities recognized the importance of maintaining the Sàmi culture. February 6 is recognized as Sàmi National Holiday in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. This day is full of activities that celebrate the Sàmi culture. First celebrated in 1993, it has become a popular event and a time for the indigenous Sàmi people to celebrate their cultural identity. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The daughter of an artist, Leakey had little formal education, but her love of archaeology led her to work on excavations, initially as an illustrator. Digging in Africa—often with her husband, fellow archaeologist Louis Leakey—she made some of anthropology’s most significant finds, including a 20-million-year-old skull and a set of hominid footprints preserved in volcanic ash. When she was a youth, what incident resulted in her being expelled from a convent school for the second time? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary