pirate
Americannoun
-
pirates
plural
-
a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.
- Synonyms:
- plunderer, corsair, buccaneer, freebooter
-
a ship used by such persons.
-
any plunderer, predator, etc..
confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.
-
a person who uses or reproduces the work or invention of another without authorization.
-
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
verb (used without object)
-
pirates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pirated,
past participle, past
-
pirating
present participle
noun
-
a person who commits piracy
-
-
a vessel used by pirates
-
( 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
-
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
piratelikeadjective
-
piraticadjective
-
piraticaladjective
-
unpiratedadjective
-
unpiraticaladjective
-
piraticallyadverb
-
unpiraticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
piratesimple
-
piratessimple
-
have piratedperfect
-
has piratedperfect
-
am piratingprogressive
-
are piratingprogressive
-
is piratingprogressive
-
have been piratingperfect progressive
-
has been piratingperfect progressive
Past
-
piratedsimple
-
had piratedperfect
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
September Words
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
August Words
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Mr. Chatten’s baritone voice, delivered with a growl and processed to sound as if it’s transmitting from a crackly pirate radio station, recalls Curtis’s tone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 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
But experts stress that while the pirate networks were suppressed, they remained intact, given the failure to address the poor economic and security conditions in Somalia that feed them.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
The region had recorded no more than a handful of pirate attacks a year since 2013, and five in 2025.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Renata and Livingston continued at top speed, eager to get away from the maniacal pirate with his deadly toast.
From "Wolfie & Fly" by Cary Fagan
Christopher and Anya’s adventures unspool at a breathless pace as they hop from island to island, dueling with pirates, trespassing among giants and competing in a deadly street race featuring some of Glimouria’s nastier creatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
He and other researchers suspect there may be collaboration between the Somali pirates and Yemenis after several vessels were seized near Yemen's coast.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 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
Men dressed as pirates follow along in their own finery.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
The program on TV is a show about shipwrecked pirates.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
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
But he already was pricing his model to undercut Western models, which he was suspected partly of having pirated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 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
That points to the question of whether Strike 3 is really serious about using the courts to fight online pirating of its product, or is merely exploiting a revenue stream.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
