pirate
Americannoun
-
pirates
plural
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a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.
- Synonyms:
- plunderer, corsair, buccaneer, freebooter
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a ship used by such persons.
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any plunderer, predator, etc..
confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.
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a person who uses or reproduces the work or invention of another without authorization.
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Also called pirate stream. Geology. a stream that diverts into its own flow the headwaters of another stream, river, etc.
verb (used with object)
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pirates,
present (3rd person singular)
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pirated,
past participle, past
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pirating
present participle
verb (used without object)
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pirates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pirated,
past participle, past
-
pirating
present participle
noun
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a person who commits piracy
-
-
a vessel used by pirates
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( as modifier )
a pirate ship
-
-
a person who illicitly uses or appropriates someone else's literary, artistic, or other work
-
-
a person or group of people who broadcast illegally
-
( as modifier )
a pirate radio station
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verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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piratelikeadjective
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piraticadjective
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piraticaladjective
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unpiratedadjective
-
unpiraticaladjective
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piraticallyadverb
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unpiraticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
piratesimple
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piratessimple
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have piratedperfect
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has piratedperfect
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am piratingprogressive
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are piratingprogressive
-
is piratingprogressive
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have been piratingperfect progressive
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has been piratingperfect progressive
Past
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piratedsimple
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had piratedperfect
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was piratingprogressive
-
were piratingprogressive
-
had been piratingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing pirate
Words Every Pirate Should Know
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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:
They divided the celebrities into teams, leading them to successfully find the treasure on the pirate ship, bagging £15,000.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Alongside his role as on-set Rocket, Gunn also portrayed Ravager Clan space pirate Kraglin Obfonteri in “Guardians of the Galaxy”; its two sequels, “Vol. 2” and “Vol. 3”; “Avengers: Endgame”; and “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
She was checking people in on the pier for a separate boat tour to Sazan on a replica galleon that advertises the opportunity to “be a pirate for a day.”
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Steve Jobs’s pirate flag celebrated a certain rebellious esprit de corps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
The course was a colorful jumble of pirate ships, giant butterflies, neon toadstools, and even half a school bus.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
Qabowsade rejected suggestions that forces from Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, had helped some of the pirates escape.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Rudderless ship just waiting for the right pirates to come along.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
McDonald’s latest Happy Meal collaboration unites the anime pirates of One Piece with Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
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
Terror-stricken, the pirates ordered the helmsman to put in to land.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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
In 2024, a group of authors sued Anthropic, arguing that the company pirated hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books and used them without permission.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Due to its global popularity, football has been found to be pirated at an "industrial scale", according to analysts.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The cyber teams found that some of the ships are running pirated software for business- management and navigation purposes that is loaded with malware.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
On board the ship, the speakers are playing an electronic track pirated from an unreleased Frankie Dena album.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
The site, which provides free access to books and scholarly articles, had faced global accusations of pirating copyright material.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 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
Alsup found the usage to be “exceedingly transformative” and “a fair use,” though the company might have broken the law by pirating a large portion of its source material.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
