The term fraud describes:A. Illegal and deceptive practices.B. Fabrication.C. Falsification.D. Plagiarism.E. None of the above.

The term fraud primarily describes A. Illegal and deceptive practices. It involves deliberate deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud itself can be a civil wrong, a criminal wrong, or it may cause no loss of money, property or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.

Option B, Fabrication, and option C, Falsification, can be considered as types of fraud if they are done with the intent to deceive. Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them, and falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results.

Option D, Plagiarism, is also a fraudulent act but it specifically refers to the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

So, while options B, C, and D can be types of fraud, the most encompassing definition of fraud is A. Illegal and deceptive practices.