prayer
noun
Simple meaning
Communicating with a deity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prehrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹɛɹ
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.
noun
The act of communicating with a deity (especially as a petition or in adoration or contrition or thanksgiving)
“The priest sank to his knees in prayer.”
uncountable
A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity.
countable
An act of praying.
Someone who prays to God
Earnest or urgent request
countable
A request; a petition.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of communicating with a deity (especially as a petition or in adoration or contrition or thanksgiving)
Used this way, prayer is a common word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The priest sank to his knees in prayer.”
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prayer
- “The priest sank to his knees in prayer.”noun
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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.
Address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship.
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.
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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.