Prayer

How to spell prayer

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce prayer

What does prayer mean?

1. nounA solemn request or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.

Prayer in a sentence

• She whispered a quiet prayer before the difficult surgery.

• The family said a short prayer before the evening meal.

Where does prayer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word arrived in English through Old French preiere, which came from the Latin precaria, meaning 'a thing obtained by begging' or 'an entreaty'. That noun grew out of the verb precari, 'to ask earnestly' or 'to beg', built on the root prex, meaning simply 'a request'. English borrowed it during the 1200s, first as a word for a humble petition and very soon for the solemn petitions addressed to God. The same prex root still hides inside 'precarious', which originally meant something held only by another's favour, granted in answer to a request. The single-syllable spelling 'prayer', ending in -er, traps many writers because the word sounds nothing like the longer agent noun (a person who prays) that shares the same letters.

How the word is built

• pray (from Latin precari: to beg, entreat)
• -er (noun, the act of)