pirate
Americannoun
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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)
verb (used without object)
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
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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:
And as a hard-nosed, long-haired defender with the bearing of a pirate, Pochettino loved it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
The rumbustious pirate, now looking at 50, with salt sprinkled through his red beard, sounds oddly subdued.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
A pirate attack off Somalia is the work of a new group of "opportunistic criminals", security officials said on Tuesday, complicating a threat that costs the shipping industry billions of dollars.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
Walking through the exhibition, specially-programmed headsets react to the environment - creating a personalised DJ Mix as the music evolves from juke joints and jazz clubs to reggae nights, carnival and pirate radio.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
Jack and Connor are still way ahead of us, laughing and speaking in pirate voices—off on a mission to find some gold in this gray landscape.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
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
Once the Revolutionary War commenced, and for years after, America’s merchant marine fleet was targeted by pirates of every stripe.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Across several studies, participants who listened to specific excerpts from symphonies by Liszt or Mahler imagined similar narratives in the music—storms, pirates and shipwrecks, in one case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
He had a spyglass and was surveying the ocean, on the lookout for pirates.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
Anthropic will pay $1.5 billion to authors whose pirated books it used to train its AI in the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history.
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
Dozens of packages stuffed with shiny football jerseys have piled up in a Mexico City warehouse, each with a sticker reading "seized merchandise" -- pirated products for the 2026 World Cup.
From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026
On board the ship, the speakers are playing an electronic track pirated from an unreleased Frankie Dena album.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
At issue was whether cable provider Cox could be held liable for “contributory” copyright infringement merely because it had knowledge that some of its users were pirating music files.
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
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.
