Piracy

How to spell piracy

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce piracy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does piracy mean?

1. nounThe act of attacking and robbing ships at sea.
2. nounThe unauthorised copying or distribution of someone else's copyrighted work.

Piracy in a sentence

• The cargo vessel changed its route to avoid piracy off the coast.

• The music industry lost millions to online piracy every year.

• Naval patrols were stepped up to combat piracy in the busy shipping lanes.

• The studio added watermarks to its films to discourage piracy.

Where does piracy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek peiratēs, meaning a brigand or sea robber, which itself grew from the verb peiran, 'to attempt, to attack, to make a trial of'. The Greek term passed into Latin as pirata, and Medieval Latin then formed the abstract noun piratia for the practice of such robbery. English took up 'piracy' in the late 1500s, during the great age of seafaring when state-sponsored privateers and outright sea robbers were a constant worry to merchants. The same peiran root that gave us 'pirate' also lurks behind 'experience' and 'experiment', words about trying and testing, which is a useful reminder that piracy is built on the idea of a venture or attempt. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed ending: it is -acy, not -acey, and there is only a single r.

How the word is built

• pir- (from Latin pirata, sea robber)
• -acy (noun suffix meaning state or practice of)