plunder
Americanverb (used with object)
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plunders,
present (3rd person singular)
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plundered,
past participle, past
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plundering
present participle
verb (used without object)
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plunders,
present (3rd person singular)
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plundered,
past participle, past
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plundering
present participle
verb
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to steal (valuables, goods, sacred items, etc) from (a town, church, etc) by force, esp in time of war; loot
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(tr) to rob or steal (choice or desirable things) from (a place)
to plunder an orchard
noun
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anything taken by plundering or theft; booty
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the act of plundering; pillage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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plunderernoun
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plunderableadjective
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plunderousadjective
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unplunderedadjective
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unplunderousadjective
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plunderinglyadverb
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unplunderouslyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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plundersimple
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plunderssimple
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have plunderedperfect
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has plunderedperfect
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am plunderingprogressive
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are plunderingprogressive
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is plunderingprogressive
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have been plunderingperfect progressive
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has been plunderingperfect progressive
Past
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plunderedsimple
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had plunderedperfect
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was plunderingprogressive
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were plunderingprogressive
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had been plunderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plunder
First recorded in 1620–30, plunder is from the Dutch word plunderen
Explanation
Plunder can mean stolen goods or money obtained illegally, or the act of taking those things. A burglar might plunder a jewelry store and then sneak off with her plunder. Plunder is an old Middle High German word that originally meant "household goods and clothes": in other words, your stuff. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), English speakers acquired this word while fighting in the land that is today Germany, but with the added meaning of taking the plunder as, well, plunder. As both a noun and verb, a synonym for plunder is loot.
Vocabulary lists containing plunder
Words Every Pirate Should Know
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The Odyssey
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Navy engaged with the British yet again, it also once more exposed American ships traveling Mediterranean to plunder from Barbary pirates, later resulting in the Second Barbary War.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
And hey, did you know that the word “raptor”—which is often used to describe birds of prey—comes from the Latin verb rapio, which means to plunder, rob, ravish, or abduct?
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
Najib, 72, serving a six-year jail term for corruption linked to the plunder of Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, which sparked probes in several countries.
From Barron's ● Dec. 22, 2025
One of the downsides of our movie-mad filmmakers — the Quentin Tarantinos who happily plunder from cinema’s illustrious past — is that their worldview can be myopic beyond what’s up there on the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
The Salon Carré was lined with his plunder.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
A blend of Islamic and Hindu beliefs has long served as a conservation code, with supernatural guardians believed to punish anyone who plunders the forest for greed.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
It plunders parental fantasies about our children as future professional athletes.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2022
If you have heard at all about guardianship for older adults, chances are that it has been about a predatory guardian who plunders the estate of a helpless older person.
From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2018
The narrator thinks about the way he plunders the lives of those around him.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 13, 2018
Unshaven and unshorn since he left Rome last, he joins Cinna, leading six thousand fugitives, seizes and plunders the towns about Rome, while Cinna encamps beneath the walls.
From Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 Studies from the Chronicles of Rome by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
He played in a typically positive fashion, striking at 97.85 as he plundered 11 fours and two sixes before falling for 91, just short of a second ODI ton.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Hermann Goering, a top Nazi official, plundered Goudstikker's entire collection when the art dealer fled to England in 1940.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
An artwork plundered by the Nazis from the world-famous Goudstikker collection has surfaced in the family of a notorious SS collaborator in the Netherlands, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told AFP Monday.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
Kyiv plundered warehouses for veteran Soviet antiaircraft guns and fitted heavy machine guns, some almost a century old, with thermal imaging systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
She held so much under her control, and I was sure the days since her Rocky was plundered, since her lineage was robbed, had demanded nothing less.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"If Auroville," which has a big international profile and has been praised by UNESCO, "does not hold out against the plundering and devastation of our natural resources, then we are all doomed," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
It’s all chintzy and campy, the plundering of low-hanging fruit.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
It was there, at the outbreak of World War II, that he helped to “rebury” the treasures of the National Archaeological Museum to protect them from bombing raids, Nazi archaeologists and plundering soldiers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
Despite skipper Shan Masood plundering 151, supported by Abdullah Shafique’s 102, the tourists stuck at it.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2024
The survivors immediately pounced upon the bodies of their fallen comrades, plundering weapons and objects of clothing that they had coveted.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
