prey
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
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.
noun
A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured.
A person or thing given up as a victim.
Animal hunted or caught for food
The victim of a disease.
verb
intransitive
To act as a predator.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
Used this way, prey is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 prey
- “He fell prey to muggers.”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.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of numerous carnivorous birds that hunt and kill other animals.
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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.