Thesaurus results for PIRATES

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

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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

The spot is known for its utter romance and distinct architecture, with buildings featuring balconies hovering over the water—it's said these were used by resident merchants to load their goods directly onto boats and (hopefully) avoid pirates. —

Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 27 May 2026 International actors have policed the pirates ever since the world first became aware of the Somali pirate crisis, when there were as many as 200 incidents of piracy between 2009 and 2011. —

Luke McGee, Time, 27 May 2026 Later on, plundering Barbary pirates raided Mallorca, looting possessions, slaughtering inhabitants and capturing others for the slave trade. —

Norma Meyer, Oc Register, 27 May 2026 Hondo Ohnaka has picked up intel about a shady deal on Tatooine between ex-Imperial officers and a crew of pirates. —

Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 23 May 2026 The pirates had used an unexpected behavior, however, to create a voltage glitch. —

ArsTechnica, 22 May 2026 Using the latest version of Epic’s Unreal Engine, each Smugglers Run locale is heavily detailed, putting us in more of a dogfight as the Mandalorian chases down pirates and ex-Imperial officers. —

Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2026 Over the past quarter-century, the UKMTO has dealt with other shipping crises too, as when Somali pirates were most active during the late 2000s or Houthi rebels in Yemen intensified their attacks on vessels passing through the Red Sea in 2023. —

Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 17 May 2026 Like so many historical myths, this swashbuckling tale of pirates, court accusations, and gossip, which frames the rags-to-riches emergence of this American family, is rife with historical fiction. —

Literary Hub, 14 May 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pirates

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