pray
/pɹeɪ/
pray verb: to direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. Also the alternative form of pray tell.
Verb
pray (third-person singular simple present prays, present participle praying, simple past and past participle prayed)
- To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
- Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.
- Pray to the small gods and hope that they may hear thee. Yet what mercy should the small gods have, who themselves made Death and Pain; or shall they restrain their old hound Time for thee?1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC
- To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
- To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
- I know not how to pray your patience.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.
- She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.
- To implore, to entreat, to request.
- They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed
Such homely what as serves the simple clowne,
That doth despise the dainties of the towne[…]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7 - In time of drought the Abchases of the Caucasus sacrifice an ox to Ap-hi, the god of thunder and lightning, and an old man prays him to send rain, thunder, and lightning, telling him that the crops are parched.1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 370
- They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed
Adverb
pray (not comparable)
- Please; used to make a polite request
- pray silence for…
- "Pray, Mr. Knightley," said Emma, who had been smiling to herself through a great part of this speech, "how do you know that Mr. Martin did not speak yesterday?"1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 124
Proper noun capitalized: Pray
Pray (plural Prays)
- A surname.
Also used as
pray is also the alternative form of pray tell.
pray meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
pray in Hindi
- to petition a higher being
- प्रार्थना करना prārthanā karnā
- to talk to God
- प्रार्थना करना prārthanā karnā
pray in Tamil
- to petition a higher being
- வேண்டு vēṇṭu, பிரார்த்தி pirārtti
pray in Marathi
- प्रार्थना करा, प्रार्थना कर
pray in Urdu
- to petition a higher being
- عبادت کرنا 'ibādat karnā
More languagesFewer languages
- pray in Bengali
- প্রার্থনা করা prarthona kora
- pray in Telugu
- ప్రార్థించు prārthiñcu
- pray in Malayalam
- പ്രാർത്ഥിക്കുക, പ്രാർത്ഥിക്കൂ
- pray in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ ಮಾಡಿ
- pray in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰਾਰਥਨਾ ਕਰੋ, ਅਰਦਾਸ ਕਰੋ
- pray in Gujarati
- પ્રાર્થના કરો, પ્રાર્થના કરજો
- pray in Odia
- ପ୍ରାର୍ଥନା କରନ୍ତୁ, ପ୍ରାର୍ଥନା କର, ପ୍ରାର୍ଥନା କରନ୍ତୁ |
- pray in Nepali
- प्रार्थना गर्नुहोस्, प्रार्थना गर
- pray in Tagalog
- manalangin, magdasal, ipagdasal, ipanalangin
- pray in Arabic
- صَلَّى ṣallā, دَعَا daʕā
- pray in Malay
- berdoa, sembah, sembahyang
- pray in Indonesian
- berdoa
- pray in Persian
- دعا کردن do'â kardan, نیایش niyâyeš, عبادت کردن 'ebâdat kardan, نماز خواندن namâz xwândan
- pray in Thai
- สวด sùuat, อธิษฐาน à-tít-tǎan, สวดมนต์ sùuat-mon, เคารพบูชา kaoróp boochaa
- pray in Vietnamese
- cầu nguyện, cầu
- pray in Myanmar
- ပူဇော် pujau, ကိုးကွယ် kui:kwai, ရှိခိုး hri.hkui:
Examples of pray in a sentence
- But I don't care about that right now, and I am going to pray, because I don't know what else to do.1995, David Mack & John J. Ordover, “Starship Down”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 7, spoken by Kira Nerys (Nana...
- I humbly pray to the Honorable Court for the order for the removal of the publication which contains fake news to be granted.2021, Yang di-Pertuan Agong, “Schedule”, in Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 2021, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2023...
- Pray don’t ask me why, pray don’t be sorry, pray don’t be vexed with me, I have nothing to do with it indeed!1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Tenth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and...
- Well, Major, pray tell us your adventures, for you have frightened us dreadfully.1845, Frederick Marryat, “Chapter XXI”, in The Mission:
Forms of pray
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | prays |
| present participle | praying |
| past participle | prayed |
| past | prayed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Prays |
Origin of pray
Inherited from Middle English preien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, from prex (“request, petition, prayer”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to request, ask”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan. Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.
Ellipsis of I pray you, I pray thee, whence also prithee.
* As an Irish surname, variant of Prey, from ó Préith, a personal name from Old Irish. * As an English surname, borrowed (via Middle English) from French pré (“meadow”).
Words formed from pray
Phrases with pray
Words that rhyme with pray
Questions about pray
- What does pray mean?
- Pray means to direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
- What is pray in Hindi?
- Pray in Hindi is प्रार्थना करना (prārthanā karnā). See Pray meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use pray in a sentence?
- But I don't care about that right now, and I am going to pray, because I don't know what else to do.
- What part of speech is pray?
- Pray can be a verb, an adverb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pray?
- Pray is pronounced /pɹeɪ/.
- What is the past tense of pray?
- The past tense of pray is prayed.
Words near pray in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pray (page history and authors); Pray (page history and authors); pray (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pray (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pray.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.