Academic Terms in Nepali: Citation, Reference and Plagiarism Explained
8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Every Nepali student meets these words in English before anyone explains them. A brief says “cite your sources”, “avoid plagiarism”, “include a reference list”, and the instruction is clear enough as English but not always clear as an instruction. This page gives the Nepali equivalent of each term and, more importantly, what the marker is actually asking you to do.
One thing to be clear about first: knowing the Nepali term helps you understand the requirement, but your submission still has to use the English terms and the English referencing style. No department in Nepal accepts a reference list written in Nepali unless the source itself is in Nepali. The translation is for comprehension, not for the page you hand in.
Citation and referencing
Citation — उद्धरण. Naming the source inside your own sentence so the reader knows where the idea came from. Every borrowed idea needs one, whether you quoted it or not.
In-text citation — पाठभित्रको उद्धरण. The short form that sits in the body of your text: author surname and year, as in (Sharma, 2023). This is what most briefs mean by “cite”.
Reference — सन्दर्भ. The full details of a single source — author, year, title, publisher or journal — given at the end.
Reference list — सन्दर्भ सूची. The alphabetical list of every source you cited in the text. In APA this exact heading is required; “Bibliography” is wrong there.
Bibliography — ग्रन्थसूची. Everything you read while researching, cited or not. Some styles want this; APA does not.
Source — स्रोत. The book, article, report or website the information came from.
The rule that catches people out is simple to state: if the idea is not yours, it needs a citation, even when the words are. Changing the wording removes the quotation marks, not the obligation to name the source.
Plagiarism and academic integrity
Plagiarism — साहित्यिक चोरी. Presenting someone else’s work or words as your own. Note that it does not require intent — forgetting to cite is still plagiarism in most university regulations.
Paraphrase — भावानुवाद. Restating someone’s idea in your own words. It still needs a citation. This is the single most misunderstood term on this list.
Quotation — उद्धृत अंश. Reproducing the exact words, which must sit inside quotation marks and normally carry a page number.
Summary — सारांश. Condensing a longer argument into a short account of it. Like a paraphrase, it needs a citation.
Academic integrity — शैक्षिक इमानदारी. The general expectation that submitted work is honestly your own and honestly attributed.
Similarity report — समानता प्रतिवेदन. What Turnitin produces: a percentage plus the passages it matched and the sources it matched them to.
A point specific to writing in Nepal: translating a passage from an English source into Nepali, or from a Nepali source into English, does not make it your own writing. It is still a paraphrase and it still needs a citation, and Turnitin’s database is not restricted to English.
Words that describe the task itself
Assignment — असाइनमेन्ट, sometimes कार्यपत्र. The piece of work set by the module.
Thesis — शोधपत्र or थेसिस. An extended research document submitted for a degree.
Research proposal — अनुसन्धान प्रस्ताव. The document you submit for approval before the research itself begins.
Literature review — साहित्य समीक्षा. A critical account of existing work on your topic, not a summary list of it.
Methodology — कार्यविधि or अनुसन्धान विधि. How you carried out the research and why that approach suits the question.
Abstract — सारांश. A short standalone summary of the whole document, written last.
Deadline — अन्तिम मिति. The submission date, after which late penalties usually apply.
Terms that are not translated
APA, MLA, Harvard, IEEE, Chicago and Vancouver are the names of referencing styles, not descriptions, so they stay in English in Nepali writing too. APA is published by the American Psychological Association; if a brief says APA and does not specify an edition, it means the seventh. Harvard is different in kind — it has no single publisher, so your college’s own house guide is the version that counts.
Turnitin is likewise a product name, not a general word for plagiarism checking. When a department says “Turnitin report”, it means the similarity report from that specific system, and a screenshot from a free online checker is not a substitute.
Once the terms are clear, these guides cover what to actually do with them: