Word.ws English Dictionary

plunder

Syllables: plund·erUK/ˈplʌndə//ˈplʌndɚ/

plunder verb: to pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.

Verb

plunder (third-person singular simple present plunders, present participle plundering, simple past and past participle plundered)

  1. (transitive) To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.
    • The mercenaries plundered the small town.
    • The shopkeeper was plundered of his possessions by the burglar.
    Synonyms:
    ravage, rifle
  2. (transitive) To take (goods) by pillage.
    • The mercenaries plundered all the goods they found.
  3. (intransitive) To take by force or wrongfully; to commit robbery or looting, to raid.
    • “Now to plunder, mateys!” screamed a buccaneer, to cries of “Arrgh!” and “Aye!” all around.
  4. (transitive) To make extensive (over)use of, as if by plundering; to use or use up wrongfully.
    • The miners plundered the jungle for its diamonds till it became a muddy waste.
  5. (transitive) To take unexpectedly.
    • The Serb teed up Steve Davis, who crossed low for Graziano Pellè to plunder his fifth league goal of the campaign.2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian
  6. (Philippines, criminal law) To amass ill-gotten wealth (by public officials) through a combination or series of overt criminal acts.

Noun

plunder (uncountable)

  1. An instance of plundering.
  2. The loot attained by plundering.
    • The Hessian kept his choicest plunder in a sack that never left his person, for fear that his comrades would steal it.
  3. (dated, slang) Baggage; luggage.
    • […] till a long-legged boy brought him out of his revery, by an offer to carry his “plunder,” in whatsoever direction he might desire to direct his steps.1880, The Peterson Magazine, volumes 77-78, page 215
  4. (Philippines, crime) The commission of plunder (verb definition 6).

plunder meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

plunder in Tamil

சூறையாட்டம், கொள்ளையடி, பறி

plunder in Urdu

to plunder
لوٹنا lūṭnā

plunder in Bengali

লুণ্ঠন করা, ডাকাতি করা

plunder in Telugu

plunder, loot, sacking
లూటీ lūṭī
More languagesFewer languages
plunder in Malayalam
കൊള്ള koḷḷa
plunder in Kannada
ಆರಡಿ, ಕೊಳ್ಳೆ, ಕೋಳು, ಕೋಳ್ಗೊಳ್
plunder in Punjabi
ਲੁੱਟਣਾ luṭṭaṇā
plunder in Sanskrit
लुप्त lupta
plunder in Sinhala
කොල්ලය kollaya, කොල්ලකනවා kollakanawā
plunder in Arabic
سَلَبَ salaba, نَهَبَ nahaba, حَرَبَ ḥaraba
plunder in Indonesian
menjarah
plunder in Persian
غارَت ġârat, تاراج târâj, چپاول čapâvol

Examples of plunder in a sentence

  • The soldiers give themselves to plunder.
  • The two are handmaking mirrors, sculptures and furnishings from salvaged materials (or “plundered trash,” as Mr.
  • Panic-stricken, Chinese troops fled further east, toward Tsitsihar, plundering the countryside.

All 35 example sentences with plunder

Synonyms of plunder

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of plunder

Forms of plunder

third-person singular presentplunders
present participleplundering
past participleplundered
pastplundered

Past tense of plunder: plundered

Origin of plunder

Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern (“to loot”), from Middle High German, from Middle Low German plunderen, from a noun originally meaning "household goods, bedding, clothing," of obscure ultimate origin. This is first attested in medieval records, and according to Gijsseling, is therefore attested too late to be considered a substrate word. Due to the lack of obvious cognates in other languages from which it would have been loaned, it could have developed as some slang word in Lower Saxony/the Low Countries. Cognate with Dutch plunderen, West Frisian plonderje, Saterland Frisian plunnerje. Probably denominal from a word for “household goods, clothes, bedding”; compare Middle Dutch plunder, German Plunder (“stuff”), Dutch and West Frisian plunje (“clothes”). The Philippine definitions originate with the Anti-Plunder Act, an act of Congress enacted in 1991.

Words formed from plunder

Words that rhyme with plunder

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about plunder

What does plunder mean?
Plunder means to pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.
What is plunder in Tamil?
Plunder in Tamil is சூறையாட்டம், கொள்ளையடி, பறி. See Plunder meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is plunder?
Plunder can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce plunder?
Plunder is pronounced /ˈplʌndə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of plunder?
The past tense of plunder is plundered.

Words near plunder in the dictionary

  1. plumule
  2. plumules
  3. plumuliform
  4. plumulose
  5. plumy
  6. plunder
  7. plunderable
  8. plunderage
  9. plunderbund
  10. plunderbunds
  11. plundered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plunder (page history and authors); plunder (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); لوٹنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); plunder (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); లూటీ (Telugu) (page history and authors); കൊള്ള (Malayalam) (page history and authors); plunder (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); लुप्त (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); කොල්ලකනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “plunder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plunder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.