piracy
/ˈpaɪɹəsi/
piracy noun: robbery at sea, a violation of international law; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it.
Noun
piracy (countable and uncountable, plural piracies)
- Robbery at sea, a violation of international law; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it.
- How should the international community respond to Somali piracy?
- Synonyms:
- pirateship, buccaneerism
- A similar violation of international law, such as hijacking of an aircraft.
- The unauthorized duplication of goods protected by intellectual property law.
- Some video game consoles use specially designed cartridges to make software piracy more difficult.
- Synonyms:
- bootlegging, file sharing
- The operation of an unlicensed radio or television station.
- Kleptoparasitism.
piracy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
piracy in Hindi
- समुद्री डकैती, पायरेसी
piracy in Tamil
- robbery at sea
- கடற்கொள்ளை kaṭaṟkoḷḷai
piracy in Marathi
- पायरसी, पायरेसी
piracy in Urdu
- ڈکیتی, قزاقی
More languagesFewer languages
- piracy in Bengali
- জলদস্যুতা, পাইরেসি
- piracy in Telugu
- పైరసీ
- piracy in Malayalam
- സമുദ്രചൗര്യം, സാഹിത്യമോഷണം, ഗ്രന്ഥചോരണം, കപ്പൽകൊള്ള
- piracy in Kannada
- ಕಡಲುಗಳ್ಳತನ, ಕೃತಿಚೌರ್ಯ, ಬರಹಗಳ್ಳತನ, ಸ್ವಾಮ್ಯಚೌರ್ಯ
- piracy in Punjabi
- ਕਜ਼ਾਕੀ kazākī
- piracy in Gujarati
- ચાંચિયાગીરી cā̃ciyāgīrī
- piracy in Odia
- ପାଇରେସି, ଜଲଦସ୍ଯୁତା, ପାଇରେସୀ
- piracy in Nepali
- पाइरेसी, पायरेसी
- piracy in Tagalog
- pamimirata
- piracy in Arabic
- قَرْصَنَة qarṣana, تَزْوِير tazwīr
- piracy in Malay
- perlanunan
- piracy in Indonesian
- pembajakan
- piracy in Thai
- โจรกรรม joo-rá-gam
Examples of piracy in a sentence
- I'm reading a romance of piracy on the high seas.
- Piracy is an utterly plunderous business.
- Most people got away with Napster piracy, but a few people were sued for gigantic sums because copyright holders intended to make an example of them.
Synonyms of piracy
Forms of piracy
| plural | piracies |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | pyracy |
Origin of piracy
From Medieval Latin pīrātia, from Classical Latin pīrāta + ia, or Ancient Greek πειρατεία (peirateía). The sense of “unauthorized duplication” developed in England between 1660 and 1710. The English Crown granted strict monopolies over book printing to specific guilds, such as the Stationers’ Company. Printing a book without permission was framed as an unlawful attack on the Crown’s authority and revenues. By labeling rogue printers as “pirates”, authorized booksellers equated them with sea robbers operating outside the bounds of civilized society. By the passage of the Statute of Anne in 1710, this usage was deeply entrenched in public consciousness as the definitive descriptor for the unauthorized duplication of books, and was later applied seamlessly to new media as they emerged.
Words formed from piracy
Phrases with piracy
Questions about piracy
- What does piracy mean?
- Piracy means robbery at sea, a violation of international law; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it.
- What is piracy in Hindi?
- Piracy in Hindi is समुद्री डकैती, पायरेसी. See Piracy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is piracy?
- Piracy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce piracy?
- Piracy is pronounced /ˈpaɪɹəsi/.
- What is the plural of piracy?
- The plural of piracy is piracies.
Words near piracy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: piracy (page history and authors); piracy (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); piracy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); piracy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); piracy (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); piracy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); piracy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); piracy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); piracy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); piracy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-piracy.wav.
Cite this entry: “piracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.