prang
/ˈpɹæŋ/US/ˈpɹeɪ̯ŋ/
prang noun: an aeroplane crash.
Noun (1)
prang (countable and uncountable, plural prangs)
- An aeroplane crash.
- I remember when a call came through that a crop sprayer had had a plane prang down at Naracoorte, in the south-east of South Australia.2011, Bill Marsh, Great South Australia Stories, HarperCollins Publishers, Australia, unnumbered page
- A bombing raid.
- An accident involving a motor vehicle, typically minor and without casualties.
- The typical prang cost a few hundred dollars in panelbeating charges.1984, Ian Manning, Beyond walking distance: The Gains from Speed in Australian Urban Travel, page 105
- If people drove like that in Australia there would be constant prangs.1999, Lydia Laube, Bound for Vietnam, page 209
- Synonyms:
- collision, crash, bingle, fender-bender, shunt
- Crack cocaine.
Verb
prang (third-person singular simple present prangs, present participle pranging, simple past and past participle pranged)
- To crash an aeroplane.
- “We have to wear good socks and boots,” said one pilot with a grin, “—as we often prang in the jungle, and have to walk home.”1946, Frank Clune, Song of India, page 332
- To crash; to have an accident while controlling a vehicle.
- “Didn′t bump nobody,” I sneer.
“That′s because you were careful,” says the wife. “Your forecast doesn′t say you will prang. It merely says ‘exercise care today,’ which you did.”1958, Nation, numbers 1-33, page 56
- “Didn′t bump nobody,” I sneer.
- To damage (the vehicle one is driving) in an accident; to have a minor collision with (another motor vehicle).
- Soon after rescuing some silly children from the local caves, the alien prangs his vessel and dies.2004, John Pym, editor, Time Out Film Guide, page 70
- On Friday, I picked up our camper van, upgraded to a four sleeper so Elysee and I could each find a neutral corner, which I managed to “prang,” navigating the parking lot, within one hour of signing away my house as security.2005, Thomas Marshall, Our Summer in Australia And New Zealand, page 93
Noun (2)
prang (plural prangs)
- A type of tower or spire featured in some Buddhist temples of Cambodia and Thailand.
- The prang is surrounded by walls, which are in turn surrounded by smaller prangs and chedis, some of which are rather precariously supported.1995, Joshua Eliot, Thailand and Burma Handbook 1996, page 216
- The second platform surrounds the base of the prang proper, whose closed entranceways are guarded by four statues of the Hindu god Indra on his three-headed elephant Erawan.2001, Paul Gray, Lucy Ridout, The Rough Guide to Bangkok, page 119
Examples of prang in a sentence
- Most of them look like they haven't slept for days; they're pranged or pinned, edgy and paranoid.
- Soon after rescuing some silly children from the local caves, the alien prangs his vessel and dies.
- He was too small to reach the brake pedal and pranged it into a stobie pole.
Synonyms of prang
Forms of prang
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | prangs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | prangs |
| present participle | pranging |
| past participle | pranged |
| past | pranged |
Origin of prang
Originally World War II Royal Air Force slang; probably imitative.
Borrowed from Khmer ប្រាង្គ (praang).
Words formed from prang
Words that rhyme with prang
Questions about prang
- What does prang mean?
- Prang means an aeroplane crash.
- What part of speech is prang?
- Prang can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce prang?
- Prang is pronounced /ˈpɹæŋ/.
- What is the plural of prang?
- The plural of prang is prangs.
Words near prang in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prang (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-prang.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prang.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prang. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.