pirate
/ˈpaɪɹət/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.96 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
noun
One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.
noun
A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
noun
A kind of marble in children's games.
Example Sentences
- "You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates."
- "How did you do it? Have you searched for hidden treasure, or discovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the Channel, or what? Where is the glamour of romance? How did you get it?"
- "The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig) overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows on either part—"
- "And Gnutella, Freenet and other pirate tools will offer plunderings beyond Fanning's fantasies."
- "They had watches that said Gucci or Rolex on them even though it was obvious they'd come straight here from some pirate factory in China."
- "If we untangle the claim that technology has turned Johnny Teenager into a pirate, what turns out to be fueling it is the idea that if Johnny Teenager were to share his unauthorized copy with two million of his closest friends the effect on a record company would be pretty similar to the effect of some CD factory's creating two million CDs and selling them cheap."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *périh₂ Proto-Hellenic *péřřa Ancient Greek πεῖρᾰ (peîră) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ω (-ắō) Ancient Greek πειράω (peiráō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek πειρᾱτής (peirātḗs)bor. Latin pīrātabor. Old French pirateubor. Middle English pirate English pirate From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *per-, pirate, pīrāta, πειρατής
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpaɪɹət/
- British English: /ˈpaɪɹət/