pirate
Americannoun
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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)
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pirated,
past participle, past
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pirating
present participle
noun
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a person who commits piracy
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a vessel used by pirates
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( as modifier )
a pirate ship
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a person who illicitly uses or appropriates someone else's literary, artistic, or other work
-
-
a person or group of people who broadcast illegally
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( 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
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unpiraticaladjective
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piraticallyadverb
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unpiraticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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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
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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
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were piratingprogressive
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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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September Words
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August Words
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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:
Radio Caroline, a former pirate radio that now mostly plays rock music, apologised in May after airing messages falsely announcing the monarch's death.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
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
That mainly comes down to its excellent setting - players take control of fictional Welsh pirate Edward Kenway in the Caribbean during the 1700s.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Perhaps it was because Lady Constance’s Fulcrum of Fortune had taken a nosedive, or perhaps it was the foolish pirate outfit—for whatever reason, and despite the desirability of the ticket, Lady Constance found no takers.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
Just look at Capt. William Kidd, who was hired by the British government to hunt pirates, but was later executed for being one.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 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
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
I almost felt bad letting the unruly pirates out, but I guessed they deserved something more entertaining than the exercise wheel after being cooped up in a cage for three centuries.
From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan
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
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
In downtown Mexico City, street vendors hawk pirated goods on the sidewalks, with team shirts for Mexico, Argentina and Colombia selling for $10-$20, roughly one-tenth the price of an official shirt for Mexico's national team.
From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026
On Friday, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance accusing it of supplying Seedance with a "pirated library" of the studio's copyrighted characters, including those from Marvel and Star Wars.
From BBC ● Feb. 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 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
Sony says it repeatedly flagged IP addresses—i.e., digital addresses—to Cox that it claimed were pirating music files.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 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
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.
