pray

English

Etymology

From Middle English preien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French preier, proier, (French prier), from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, present active infinitive of precor, from prex, precis, “a prayer, a request”; akin to Sanskrit prach “to ask”, Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Confer deprecate, imprecate, precarious.

Pronunciation

• enPR: prā, IPA: /preɪ/, X-SAMPA: /preI/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophone: prey

Verb

pray (third-person singular simple present prays, present participle praying, simple past and past participle prayed)

1. To petition or solicit help from a supernatural or higher being.
2. To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
3. (religion) to communicate with God for any reason.

Antonyms

• curse

Derived terms

• prayer
• pray in aid

Translations

to petition a higher being

• Arabic: صلى (ar) (ṣállā), imperfect: يصلي (ar) (yuṣallī)
• Aramaic:

  Syriac: ܨܠܝ (ṣalé)

• Armenian: աղոթել (hy) (aġot’el) 
• Burmese: ပူဇော် (my) (puzaw), ကိုးကွယ် (my) (ko:gwè), ရှိခိုး (my) (shi.hko:)
• Catalan: resar (ca), pregar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 祈禱 (cmn), 祈祷 (cmn) (qídǎo), 禱告 (cmn), 祷告 (cmn) (dǎogào)

• Czech: modlit se
• Danish: bede, tilbede
• Dutch: bidden (nl)
• Esperanto: preĝi (eo)
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi), anoa (fi), pyytää (fi)
• French: prier (fr)
• Georgian: ლოცვა (ka) (lotsva) 
• German: beten (de)
• Hawaiian: pule
• Hebrew: התפלל (he) (hitpalél)
• Hindi: प्रार्थना करना (hi) (prārthanā karnā)
• Icelandic: biðja (is)
• Irish: guigh (ga)

  Old Irish: guidid

• Italian: pregare (it)
• Japanese: 祈る (ja) (いのる, inoru), 祈祷する (ja) (kitō-suru), 祈願する (ja) (kigan-suru), 祭る (ja) (matsuru)
• Jèrriais: prier
• Korean: 빌다 (ko) (bilda)
• Maori: inoi (mi)
• Mongolian: мѳргѳх (mn) (mörgöh) 
• Navajo: sodilzin
• Old Church Slavonic: молити (moliti)
• Persian: دعا کردن (fa) (do'â kardan), نیایش (fa) (niyâyeš)
• Polish: modlić się (pl)
• Portuguese: rezar (pt), orar (pt), pregar (pt)
• Romanian: ruga (ro), închina (ro)
• Russian: молиться (ru) (molít’sja)  impf., помолиться (ru) (pomolít’sja)  pf.
• Slovene: moliti (sl)
• Spanish: rezar (es)
• Swahili: sali (sw)
• Swedish: be (sv)
• Thai: สวด (sùat)
• Vietnamese: cầu nguyện (vi)
• Vilamovian: bāta
• Yiddish: בעטן גאָט (betn got)

to beg humbly for aid

• Armenian: աղաչել (hy) (aġačel) 
• Catalan: pregar (ca)
• Czech: pěkně prosit (zast.)
• Danish: bede (da)
• Dutch: smeken (nl)
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi), anoa (fi)
• Georgian: ვედრება (vedreba)
• German: bitten, erbitten
• Icelandic: biðja (is), bæna (is)

• Japanese: 願う (ja) (ねがう, negau), 請う (ja) (kou), 嘆願する (ja) (tangan suru)
• Maori: minono (mi)
• Russian: молить (ru) (molít’)  impf., помолить (ru) (pomolít’)  pf.
• Spanish: rogar (es)
• Swahili: sali (sw)
• Swedish: bönfalla (sv), be (sv)
• Thai: อ้อนวอน (ônwon)
• Yiddish: בעטן (betn)

to talk to God

• Arabic: صلى (ar) (ṣállā), imperfect: يصلي (ar) (yuṣallī)
• Armenian: աղոթել (hy) (aġot'el) 
• Burmese: ကိုးကွယ် (my) (ko:gwè)
• Catalan: resar (ca), pregar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 祈禱 (cmn), 祈祷 (cmn) (qídǎo), 禱告 (cmn), 祷告 (cmn) (dǎogào)

  Min Nan: 祈禱 (nan) (kî-tó)

• Czech: modlit se
• Danish: bede (da)
• Dutch: bidden (nl)
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi)
• French: prier (fr)
• Georgian: ლოცვა (ka) (lotsva) 
• German: beten (de)
• Greek: προσεύχομαι (el) (prosev́khome) 
• Hebrew: התפלל (he) (hitpalél)
• Hindi: प्रार्थना करना (hi) (prārthanā karnā)
• Hungarian: imádkozik (hu)
• Icelandic: biðja (is)
• Indonesian: berdoa (id)
• Irish: guigh (ga)

  Old Irish: guidid

• Italian: pregare (it)

• Japanese: 祈る (ja) (いのる, inoru)
• Jèrriais: prier
• Kazakh: сиыну (kk) (sîınu) 
• Korean: 빌다 (ko) (bilda)
• Latin: precor (la)
• Malay: sembah (ms), sembahyang (ms)
• Norwegian: be (no)
• Old Church Slavonic: молити (moliti)
• Persian: نیایش (fa) (niyâyeš), عبادت کردن (fa) ('ebâdat kardan), نماز خواندن (fa) (namâz xwândan)
• Portuguese: rezar (pt), orar (pt)
• Romanian: ruga (ro)
• Russian: молиться (ru) (molít’sja)  impf., помолиться (ru) (pomolít’sja)  pf.
• Slovene: moliti (sl)
• Spanish: orar (es), rogar (es)
• Swahili: sali (sw)
• Swedish: bedja (sv), be (sv)
• Telugu: ప్రార్థించు (praarthimchu)
• Thai: เคารพบูชา (th) (kaoróp boochaa)
• Vietnamese: cầu (vi), cầu nguyện (vi)
• West Frisian: beade (fy)
• Yiddish: בעטן גאָט (betn got)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: te lutesh
• Basque: otoitz egin
• Bulgarian: казвам молитва
• Serbo-Croatian: moliti
• Indonesian: berdoa
• Latin: orare
• Latvian: skaitīt lūgšanu
• Lithuanian: melstis
• Maltese: titlob
• Maori: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can

• Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
• Old English: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: a (te) ruga
• Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian: молити
• Slovak: modlitba
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: ప్రార్థించు (praarthimchu) (1, 2, 3)
• Turkish: dua etmek
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: gweddïo

Adverb

pray (not comparable)

1. please; used to make a polite request.
   • 1816: Jane Austen, Emma, Volume 1 Chapter 8

     "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?"

   • Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, Chapter 10, 1841:

     Pray don’t ask me why, pray don’t be sorry, pray don’t be vexed with me!

   • Frederick Marryat, The Mission, Chapter XXI, 1845:

     Well, Major, pray tell us your adventures, for you have frightened us dreadfully.