pray.
To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
Meaning & usage
To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.
To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.
She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.
To implore, to entreat, to request.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- Proto-Italic *preks Latin prex Latin precārī Late Latin precāre Old French proiier Anglo-Norman preierbor. Middle English preien English pray Inherited from Middle English preien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, from prex (“request, petition, prayer”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to request, ask”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan. Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.
Please; used to make a polite request
pray silence for…
Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you”).
Where this word comes from
Ellipsis of I pray you, I pray thee, whence also prithee.
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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.