prank
1 Americannoun
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pranks
plural
verb (used with object)
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pranks,
present (3rd person singular)
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pranked,
past participle, past
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pranking
present participle
verb (used without object)
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pranks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pranked,
past participle, past
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pranking
present participle
verb
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(tr) to dress or decorate showily or gaudily
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(intr) to make an ostentatious display
noun
Usage
What is a prank call? A prank call or crank call is when a person calls someone up to make a joke or play a trick on them. Teenagers may make prank calls to random people while comedians may use them to dupe political figures. Though meant to be humorous and playful, they can have serious consequences.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pranksimple
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prankssimple
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have prankedperfect
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has prankedperfect
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am prankingprogressive
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are prankingprogressive
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is prankingprogressive
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have been prankingperfect progressive
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has been prankingperfect progressive
Past
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prankedsimple
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had prankedperfect
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was prankingprogressive
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were prankingprogressive
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had been prankingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prank1
First recorded in 1520–30; origin uncertain
Origin of prank2
1540–50; akin to Dutch pronken to show off, strut, pronk show, finery, Middle Low German prank pomp
Explanation
Pretending to be someone else on the phone or putting a whoopee cushion on someone's chair are two very old types of a prank, or practical joke, played at someone else's expense. There are many kinds of pranks in the world. If you called a friend and said you were the police, that would be a prank phone call. Some pranks can be mean and even dangerous, while others are silly. Some people prank their friends, while others prank people they dislike. Some people never outgrow the need to pull a good prank. A less common meaning of prank is to dress up in a showy or silly way.
Vocabulary lists containing prank
Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
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Comedy Lingo
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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:
Then in 2008 he took the strip with him to South America where the prank took on a life of its own.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Police officers who are called upon to respond do not know this is a prank and treat the call as an actual burglary in progress, thus creating a potentially dangerous situation.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Juiced,” a “reality TV” prank show built around O.J.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Instagram, which is owned by Meta, has been disabling accounts and taking down some of these pickup or prank videos for violating the platform’s rules against harassment and bullying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Runs up thousand-dollar phone bills making prank calls to the Middle East.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Playing jokes and pranks, it needs to be amusing and not belittling, obviously.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
In fact, if we were on the eve of April Fools’ Day, not the Fourth of July, I’d guess that the few news stories about the order were pranks.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
But Riley has put in so much work of his own wowing us with pointed pranks that he’s earned the right to deliver an earnest plea.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
The 28-year-old, known for his pranks and efforts to stand in local elections, manages NDL FC, based off his brand the Niko Defence League.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
She’d tell stories of the tricky little monkeys from Ghanaian myths who liked to cause trouble, play pranks, and … whistle.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
But when Adidas unveiled the kits for the tournament, swashbuckling centre back Alexi Lalas and his team-mates thought they had been pranked.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Kido says they’ve never been on the receiving end of weird or gross trash—or even pranked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
One of them was Rita Skimehorn, the woman from Mascoutah, Illinois, who thought she was being pranked when Pizza Hut HR told her to pack her bags for the USSR.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2025
Eliava, in contrast, was a mischievous charmer who pranked his friends, once dressing as a woman to flirt with d’Hérelle at a dinner party, and kept sketchy notes in the lab.
From Salon ● Nov. 20, 2024
Maybe they hadn’t pranked him first thing in the morning like most days.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
He and his best pal Chris Stark, who joined Radio 1 in 2012, were known for their real life, on-air bromance and for pranking each other.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
This further fouls up Didi’s holiday, though Cliff’s pranking of Conway may mark the moment when she falls in love.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
“My friend sent me a video, and at first I thought she was pranking me,” the 20-year-old from Nashville told Slate—and not just because the concept of an “A.I. actress” is already baffling enough.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2025
Robinson is more interested in pranking us with psych-outs than sinister scares.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025
The hardest part about pranking, Alaska told me once, is not being able to confess.
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
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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.
