- Romantic cheating involves a partner of an exclusive or monogamous couple engaging in physical acts of love with one or more individuals outside the relationship. When a partner cheats with just one individual over a period of time, the situation may also be referred to as an affair. Romantic cheating is a common cause for break ups, separations, and divorce. Personal definitions of romantic cheating vary and can range from the mere act of hugging to kissing to sharing sexual acts. However, within the past twenty years the spotlight on romantic cheating has shifted from just physical expressions of infidelity to emotional ones as well. Emotional cheating, referring to one partner in the relationship being significantly emotionally attached or in love with another person, may occur with or without physical cheating and can be considered more hurtful to the cheated partner than sexual infidelity alone.
- In sports, athletes can cheat by seeking an unfair advantage against their opponents through many means, including breaking the sport rules, gaining advance knowledge of the other team's plans, or using unauthorized performance enhancing substances. Unauthorized substances include steroids and other physical boosters as well as manipulated playing equipment, such as corked baseball bats.
- Cheating can also refer to misconduct in non-contact sports, such as casino card games. Individuals who cheat in poker or black jack, for example, may carefully study card decks during play to predict what they and their opponents may receive. This method is called counting cards and is banned in most casinos. Card players may also cheat by compromising the deck or adding cards of their own to produce winning combinations.
- A student who plagiarizes all or part of an assignment from any source is cheating. This includes stealing or sharing test answers with other students or gaining access to test questions or answers before the test. It also can refer to a student cutting and pasting information into non-test assignments without citing the author. Cheating online has become a large concern among educators over the past fifteen years as students are able to access a myriad of sources of information over the Internet, including recycled papers or paper writing services, which are hard to identify.
- The term cheating has become a loose verb in modern culture and may now also refer to any situation where an individual used a different option or did not follow a simple plan. For example, one might say, "I am cheating on my normal group of friends tonight by going to the movies with a new crowd," or "This weekend I cheated on my diet by eating a hamburger."
