pray
verb
Simple meaning
To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prayIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹeɪ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
religion
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.
To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: 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.
Used this way, pray is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use pray
- “Many people pray for peace and good health every night.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of communicating with a deity (especially as a petition or in adoration or contrition or thanksgiving).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A service at which people sing hymns and pray together.
An Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel.
A small rug used by Muslims during their devotions.
A service at which people sing hymns and pray together.
A shawl with a ritually knotted fringe at each corner.
A cylinder with prayers written on it.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.