piracy

American  

[pahy-ruh-see] / ˈpaɪ rə si /

noun

• piracies
  plural

1. practice of a pirate; robbery or illegal violence at sea.

2. the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc..

   The record industry is beset with piracy.

3. Also called stream capture. Geology. diversion of the upper part of one stream by the headward growth of another.

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piracy British  

/ ˈpaɪrəsɪ /

noun

1. robbery on the seas within admiralty jurisdiction

2. a felony, such as robbery or hijacking, committed aboard a ship or aircraft

3. the unauthorized use or appropriation of patented or copyrighted material, ideas, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antipiracy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• piracies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of piracy

1545–55; earlier pyracie < Medieval Latin pīrātīa < Late Greek peirāteía. See pirate, -acy

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Explanation

Piracy is a what pirates do: they steal stuff. If you plagiarize by stealing someone's words or ideas that’s piracy. Argh! The original sense of piracy comes from pirates — thieves who hijack other boats, taking what they please. That should help you remember that piracy means to steal someone else's work, usually their words or ideas. A writer who doesn't cite their sources is committing piracy. Piracy is plagiarism, and it is legally and morally wrong.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

piracy piracies

After earning a theoretical physics degree, he helped build the file-sharing application Kazaa, which introduced music piracy to many, followed by Skype, in the early 2000s, which Microsoft later bought for $8.5 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

He became an international superstar in 1935 in “Captain Blood,” as a wrongly accused doctor who escapes slavery and takes up piracy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

The security ministry also issued a statement expressing opposition to "bombings by international warships targeting civilians" that "undermined co-operation… in combatting piracy", and demanded an immediate explanation for why they were carried out.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

This year's figures, however, remain far below those recorded in 2011, when piracy in the region peaked.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

He does not tell her that he has only one dream, and it is just as improbable as a career in garden piracy.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Three are found in Article I, Section 8: counterfeiting, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against international law.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2016

The piracies represented an oddly terrifying juxtaposition of technology and barbarism, an almost science-fiction quality of civilization in a retrograde time machine, stranded abruptly in a desert waste.

From Time Magazine Archive

Much of our surgical practice in China was due to these piracies and forays.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 by Various

The ship was built by Lord Willoughby to protect English commerce from the piracies of the Dunkirkers. 

From James VI and the Gowrie Mystery by Andrew Lang

This engraving delighted the public whom it satirised, and Hogarth lost much through piracies of his work.

From English Painters with a chapter on American painters by S. R. Koehler

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Related Words

• copying
• hijacking
• infringement
• plagiarism
• theft

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