pirates 1 of 2

noun

plural of pirate
as in buccaneers
someone who engages in robbery of ships at sea Sir Francis Drake was a British pirate who preyed on Spanish ships with the connivance of Elizabeth I

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pirates

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of pirate
as in seizes
to take or make use of under a guise of authority but without actual right using pirated software that was subject to copyright

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pirates
Noun
In September, Puntland authorities said pirates killed five crew members of the tanker MT Honour 25 before security forces recovered it. — ABC News, 3 Nov. 2026 Maritime security experts aren’t sure where the pirates are getting their funding. — David Goldman, CNN Money, 29 Oct. 2026 Alas, Medak also is famous for directing the lamentable Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1974), a comedy about bumbling 17th century pirates that starred the combustible Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. — Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 28 Oct. 2026 Mo, who arrived by chance among the pirates as an infant, has been brought up by the ship’s kindly captain, Claas. — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 Oct. 2026 Wild to me though that something that expensive would just be dropped off with porch pirates out there. — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026 Jamal convened a press conference proclaiming to be able to communicate by phone with Somali pirates who were holding a Nigerian ship hostage. — Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026 Get it at 50 percent off and complete the set with matching bowls featuring the whole Peanuts gang in designs with bats and pumpkins, Snoopy’s doghouse, pirates, Schroeder’s piano, pumpkin patches, cute costumes, and more. — Caley Sturgill, Southern Living, 2 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pirates
  1. buccaneers
  2. seizes
  3. corsairs
  4. claims
  5. raiders
  6. steals
  7. confiscates
  8. converts
Noun
  • The conference curated a world of coming wonders for several hundred C-suite buccaneers who had paid up to fifty thousand dollars apiece to update their mental models and investment portfolios.
    — Tad Friend, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Definition of buccaneers
Verb
  • Now, her family must reckon with the consequences as Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to regain her position.
    — Michael Schneider, Variety, 5 Nov. 2026
  • Sid is smart enough to sniff this out, and the show seizes the opportunity to raise the romantic stakes through an adorably British expression of mutual libidinousness.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of seizes
Noun
  • Courtesy Luxury Living Costa Rica Three centuries before wealthy investors sought out trophy holdings along Costa Rica’s untamed Pacific coast, these shores were a theater of conquistadors, corsairs and cannon fire.
    — Donna Hardie-Scott, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • After the Revolutionary War, the United States maintained no standing fleet, but attacks by the Barbary pirates—corsairs based in North Africa who preyed on American merchant ships and took sailors ransom—drove Congress to reestablish a navy in the 1790s.
    — David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 4 June 2026
Definition of corsairs
Verb
  • Google also claims the model outperforms competing systems across benchmarks covering agent routing, reasoning, ranking and multimodal understanding, while achieving the lowest calibration error.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 11 Nov. 2026
  • All of these companies are being sued by PHI Health, a national air ambulance chain, which claims the employers are responsible for bills that health insurers haven’t fully paid, or have delayed paying.
    — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 11 Nov. 2026
Definition of claims
Noun
  • The series chronicles the rise of Norse raiders Erik Bloodaxe (Xavier Molyneux) and his wife Gunnhild, Mother of Kings (Jessica Madsen).
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Frank and Jesse James rode with them as the raiders killed 150 to 200 men and boys and burned down nearly every business on Massachusetts Street, as well as dozens of homes.
    — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of raiders
Verb
  • Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo steals the ball from UConn guard Kayleigh Heckel during the second half in an Elite Eight game on March 29, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.
    — Doug Feinberg, Chicago Tribune, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Plus, in the end, another chain, Sizzler, swoops in and steals all the cows.
    — Payton Turkeltaub, Variety, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of steals
Verb
  • Arriving from Barcelona, the local landlord, however, confiscates Fagas’ America rifle, given to him by his father.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Large swaths of the film are composed of close-ups of people’s faces or hands, giving seemingly mundane exchanges and gestures — say, a moment when Evans, unimpressed with Holmes’s egg-whisking technique, confiscates the bowl — greater weight.
    — Alex Barasch, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of confiscates
Verb
  • The cockpit is fitted with a dining table that converts into a sun pad and fold-down bulwarks that open to create waterside terraces.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 4 Nov. 2026
  • One turbine section powers the compressor, while a separate free power turbine converts the energy in the exhaust gases into mechanical output for the ship’s propulsion system.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of converts

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pirates
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Cite this Entry

“Pirates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pirates. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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