kleptomnesia
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The situation where a person comes up with an idea that they believe to be original, but which was in fact created by someone else and previously encountered by the person.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Kleptomnesia happens due to a pragmatic, but peculiar, feature of how human memory is wired. When we encode information, we tend to pay more attention to the content than the source. Once we accept a piece of information as true, we no longer need to worry about where we acquired it."
- "Chad Bauman has offered a great model for the “make your own religion” exercise, and I will engage in repeated acts of “kleptomnesia” in appropriating his ideas."
- "It’s fair to say that psychologists haven’t exactly figured out a way around kleptomnesia, and maybe Melania Trump’s speech might instigate research into this fuzzy area."
- "We're all vulnerable to “kleptomnesia”—accidentally remembering the ideas of others as our own."
- "Like every other author, I'm vulnerable to 'kleptomnesia' – accidentally remembering the ideas of others as your own."
- "I worry that I will wake up tomorrow in a cold sweat, having forgotten to thank someone who assuredly deserved it. Everyone is vulnerable to "kleptomnesia," or accidentally remembering the ideas of others as our own."