predator

/ˈpɹɛd.ə.tə/US/ˈpɹɛd.ə.tɚ/

predator noun: any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other nonplant organisms (their prey), primarily for food.

Noun

predator (plural predators)

Any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other nonplant organisms (their prey), primarily for food.
- Hives should be positioned, oriented and protected to avoid predators and ensure survival in the meliponary. A study (pers. obs.) of predators shows that the main culprits in a Malaysian meliponary are frogs and lizards.2018 October 15, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The pollination of cultivated plants: A compendium for practitioners: Volume 2, Food & Agriculture Org., →ISBN, page 73
- So if you're the only thing worth eating in the middle of the ocean, the predator that grabs you will probably have gotten there by a Levy walk.2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin, →ISBN
(informal) Someone who attacks and plunders for gain.

Synonyms:

vulture
(informal, slang) A sexual predator.

predator meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

predator in Hindi

animal or organism that hunts: दरिंदा darindā

predator in Tamil

கொன்றுண்ணி, இரைக்கொல்லி, பறவை, வேட்டை விலங்கு

predator in Marathi

परभक्षी

predator in Urdu

animal or organism that hunts: دَرِنْدَہ darinda

More languagesFewer languages

predator in Bengali: শিকারী প্রাণী
predator in Telugu: ప్రెడేటర్
predator in Kannada: ಉಸಿರಿಯೆರೆಗ, ಕೊಳ್ಳೆಗಾರ, ಆರಡಿಗ, ಬೇಟೆಯಾಡಿ ತಿನ್ನುವ ಪ್ರಾಣಿ
predator in Nepali: प्रिडेटर
predator in Pashto: ښکارکوونکی x̌kārkawūnkay
predator in Arabic: مُفْتَرِس muftaris, ضَارٍ ḍārin
predator in Malay: pemangsa
predator in Indonesian: pemangsa
predator in Thai: นักล่า nák-lâa, ผู้ล่า pûu-lâa
predator in Vietnamese: động vật ăn thịt

Examples of predator in a sentence

Wild animals have to be constantly on the alert for predators.
The back of the beetle was eyed to make it appear to be a snake to a predator.
When animal mimicry goes really wrong they don't just look like something that a predator would ignore, they look like lunch.

All 40 example sentences with predator

Synonyms of predator

vulture

Forms of predator

plural	predators
alternative form (obsolete)	prædator

Plural of predator: predators

Origin of predator

Borrowed from Latin praedātor, from praedor (“loot, pillage”), from praeda (“booty, spoils, prey”).

Phrases with predator

predator bugs

Questions about predator

What does predator mean?: Predator means any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other nonplant organisms (their prey), primarily for food.
What is predator in Hindi?: Predator in Hindi is दरिंदा (darindā). See Predator meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is predator?: Predator is a noun.
How do you pronounce predator?: Predator is pronounced /ˈpɹɛd.ə.tɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of predator?: The plural of predator is predators.

Words near predator in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: predator (page history and authors); predator (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); predator (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); predator (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); predator (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); predator (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); predator (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-predator.wav.

Cite this entry: “predator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/predator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.