pirate.
A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
Meaning & usage
A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates.
An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels.
One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.
A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
A kind of marble in children's games.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *périh₂ Proto-Hellenic *péřřa Ancient Greek πεῖρᾰ (peîră) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ω (-ắō) Ancient Greek πειράω (peiráō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek πειρᾱτής (peirātḗs)bor. Latin pīrātabor. Old French pirateubor. Middle English pirate English pirate From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".
To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.
They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.
To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.
To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.
Not willing to pay full price for the computer game, Heidi pirated a copy.
To engage in piracy.
He pirated in the Atlantic for years before becoming a privateer for the Queen.
To entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *périh₂ Proto-Hellenic *péřřa Ancient Greek πεῖρᾰ (peîră) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ω (-ắō) Ancient Greek πειράω (peiráō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek πειρᾱτής (peirātḗs)bor. Latin pīrātabor. Old French pirateubor. Middle English pirate English pirate From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".
Illegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *périh₂ Proto-Hellenic *péřřa Ancient Greek πεῖρᾰ (peîră) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ω (-ắō) Ancient Greek πειράω (peiráō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek πειρᾱτής (peirātḗs)bor. Latin pīrātabor. Old French pirateubor. Middle English pirate English pirate From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.