pirate

American  

[pahy-ruht] / ˈpaɪ rət /

noun

• pirates
  plural

1. a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.

   Synonyms:

   plunderer, corsair, buccaneer, freebooter

2. a ship used by such persons.

3. any plunderer, predator, etc..

   confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.

4. a person who uses or reproduces the work or invention of another without authorization.

5. Also called pirate stream.  Geology. a stream that diverts into its own flow the headwaters of another stream, river, etc.

---

verb (used with object)

• pirates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pirated,
  past participle,  past
• pirating
  present participle

1. to commit piracy upon; plunder; rob.

2. to take by piracy.

   to pirate gold.

3. to use or reproduce (a book, an invention, etc.) without authorization or legal right.

   to pirate hit records.

4. to take or entice away for one's own use.

   Our competitor is trying to pirate our best salesman.

verb (used without object)

• pirates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pirated,
  past participle,  past
• pirating
  present participle

1. to commit or practice piracy.

pirate British  

/ ˈpaɪrɪt, paɪˈrætɪkəl /

noun

1. a person who commits piracy

2. 1. a vessel used by pirates

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pirate ship

3. a person who illicitly uses or appropriates someone else's literary, artistic, or other work

4. 1. a person or group of people who broadcast illegally

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pirate radio station

---

verb

1. (tr) to use, appropriate, or reproduce (artistic work, ideas, etc) illicitly

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• piratelike
  adjective
• piratic
  adjective
• piratical
  adjective
• unpirated
  adjective
• unpiratical
  adjective
• piratically
  adverb
• unpiratically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pirates
  plural

Participles

• pirating
  present
• pirated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pirate
  simple
• pirates
  simple
• have pirated
  perfect
• has pirated
  perfect
• am pirating
  progressive
• are pirating
  progressive
• is pirating
  progressive
• have been pirating
  perfect progressive
• has been pirating
  perfect progressive

Past

• pirated
  simple
• had pirated
  perfect
• was pirating
  progressive
• were pirating
  progressive
• had been pirating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pirate
  simple
• will have pirated
  perfect
• will be pirating
  progressive
• will have been pirating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pirate

1250–1300; Middle English < Latin pīrāta < Greek peirātḗs, equivalent to peirā- , variant stem of peirân to attack + -tēs agent noun suffix

Explanation

Yarg, matey! A cartoon pirate wears an eye patch, three-cornered hat, billowy shirt, and tall black boots. In real life, a pirate just boards ships and robs them of cargo, valuables, and money, often while wearing regular boring clothes. Pirates have been around since humans have been shipping valuable goods by boat across oceans. You can also use pirate as a verb to describe what these robbers do. Today, in addition to traditional pirates, there are pirates who use digital creative material, like books, movies, games, and music, without paying for it. If you pirate a movie, you make a copy and sell it illegally. The Greek root of pirate is peirates, "one who attacks."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pirate pirates pirated pirating

Apparently, a lot of people pirate his films so they can be completists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

The 1,200-square-foot Ship Wreck House has three decks and pirate details, such as a water cannon and secret passageway leading to a treasure-themed chamber with a skeleton and a chest of doubloons.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The Custom House sits on the site of the former Penarth Head Inn, which the restaurant says was home to the notorious pirate Edward Edwards, external in the 1700s.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

There’s a spacecraft and a robot and pirate references, all catnip for sci-fi and dystopia lovers and all very well done.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

“Are you telling me that our ancestor Alonso Mieras was the pirate captain known as Aliento de Perro?”

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Although fictional, the game stars real characters such as the infamous English pirate Blackbeard, and other pirates including Mary Read and Anne Bonny.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

It was definitely not cheap paying off these pirates, whether it was ransoms or tariffs.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

From 2003 through 2008, the association sued some 35,000 alleged song pirates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

Seven years later, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fleet—three frigates and a schooner—to subdue pirates disrupting shipping along North Africa’s Barbary Coast.

From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026

“It’s not like finding the booty of old-time pirates or something,” Chet said.

From "Mystery Map (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #3)" by Franklin W. Dixon

The biggest players in Silicon Valley are building data centers to more efficiently run copyright-infringement machines built on terabytes of pirated material.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

Although the judge said Anthropic could use authors’ works for training, he backed the payout for acquiring and storing pirated books.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

One street vendor, who requested anonymity, lost all her pirated merchandise in a recent police crackdown.

From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026

Anthropic recently agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a copyright-infringement lawsuit over its use of pirated books to train its models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Mary Anne searched her purse for a Kleenex, but pulled out instead a teaspoon pirated from her mother’s silver service.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

Cox also repeatedly warned alleged infringers to knock it off when Sony flagged IP addresses suspected of pirating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday on whether internet service providers should be held liable for the online pirating of copyrighted music by their users.

From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025

Napster, the former music pirating site and bane of major labels at the turn of the millennium, is today a minor player compared to Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Two men who helped run the once wildly popular pirating website Megaupload were each sentenced by a New Zealand court on Thursday to more than two years in prison.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 15, 2023

Some families lived on the lower floors, pirating water and electricity, but the elevators didn’t work.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• raider