I'm writing a book and refer to quick references to spark creativity but also learn other words to improve my vocabulary. Is this plagiarism? If you're a writer and you pull other words from an author's work to apply to your own vocabulary and work, just words, not full on sentences, is that considered plagiarism? I'm trying to learn and improve as a writer so when I'm reading other books from other authors and come across words I've never used, and from there, begin to use and apply them to my own vocabulary, is that plagiarism? I just want to ensure I'm not violating any rights or incidentally plagiarizing. I'm very torn on this. Can someone help?
Simply put, plagiarism is copying someone else's work and trying to pass it off as your own. If you only pull isolated words, you aren't copying anyone's work, because the "work" is deciding to use that word in a given context, and your context isn't the same.