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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prize.

That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɹaɪ̯z/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹɑ̟ɪ̯z/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈpɹɒ̈ɪ̯z/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈpɹaːz/
  1. That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.

  2. Anything captured by a belligerent using the rights of war; especially, property captured at sea in virtue of the rights of war, as a vessel.

  3. An honour or reward striven for in a competitive contest; anything offered to be competed for, or as an inducement to, or reward of, effort.

  4. That which may be won by chance, as in a lottery.

  5. Anything worth striving for; a valuable possession held or in prospect.

  6. A contest for a reward; competition.

    obsolete
  7. A lever; a pry; also, the hold of a lever.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English prise, from Old French prise (“a taking, capture, a seizure, a thing seized, a prize, booty, also hold, purchase”), past participle of prendre (“to take, to capture”), from Latin prēndere (“to take, seize”); see prehend. Compare prison, apprise, comprise, enterprise, purprise, reprisal, surprise, etc. Doublet of prise.

verb
  1. To consider highly valuable; to esteem.

  2. To set or estimate the value of; to appraise; to price; to rate.

    obsolete
  3. To move with a lever; to force up or open; to prise or pry.

  4. To compete in a prizefight.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English prysen, borrowed from Old French preisier (“to set a price or value on, esteem, value”), from pris (“price”), from Latin pretium (“price, value”), whence price; see also praise, a doublet. Compare appraise, apprize.

adj
  1. Having won a prize; award-winning.

    not-comparable
    a prize vegetable
  2. First-rate; exceptional.

    not-comparable
    He was a prize fool.
noun
  1. Obsolete form of price.

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Alternative forms.

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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.