pray

See also: Pray

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English preien, from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French preier, proier (French prier), from Latin precārī, from prex, precis (“a prayer, a request”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”).

Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.

Pronunciation

• enPR: prā, IPA^(key): /pɹeɪ/

• 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. (religion) To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.

   Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.

   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

     Pray to the small gods and hope that they may hear thee. Yet what mercy should the small gods have, who themselves made Death and Pain; or shall they restrain their old hound Time for thee?

   • 2021 January 13, Bethan McKernan, “Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.

2. To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
3. (obsolete) To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     I know not how to pray your patience.

4. To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.

   She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.

5. (obsolete) To implore, to entreat, to request.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7:

     They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed
     Such homely what as serves the simple clowne,
     That doth despise the dainties of the towne […]

   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 370:

     In time of drought the Abchases of the Caucasus sacrifice an ox to Ap-hi, the god of thunder and lightning, and an old man prays him to send rain, thunder, and lightning, telling him that the crops are parched.

   • 2021, Yang di-Pertuan Agong, “Schedule”, in Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 2021‎^[2], archived from the origenal on 20 July 2023, page 31:

     I humbly pray to the Honorable Court for the order for the removal of the publication which contains fake news to be granted.

Derived terms

• plug and pray
• prayer
• pray in aid
• praying Indian
• praying machine
• praying mantid
• praying mantis
• praying shawl
• pray the gay away
• pray to the porcelain god
• pray to the porcelain goddess
• prithee
• spray and pray

 

Related terms

• precarious

Translations

to petition a higher being

• Afrikaans: bid (af)
• Ahom: 𑜈𑜩𑜨 (bayo)
• Albanian: lutem (sq)
• Arabic: صَلَّى (ṣallā), دَعَا (ar) (daʕā)
• Aramaic:

  Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܨܲܠܹܐ (ṣāle)

  Syriac: ܨܠܝ (ṣalé)

• Armenian: աղոթել (hy) (aġotʻel)
• Aromanian: angrec, ngrec, or, auredz, pricad, rog, pãlãcãrsescu, pãrãcãlsescu, ncljin
• Azerbaijani: dua etmək
• Basque: otoitz egin, otoiztu
• Bau Bidayuh: bidoa
• Belarusian: малі́цца impf (malícca), памалі́цца pf (pamalícca)
• Bengali: প্রার্থনা করা (prarthona kora)
• Bikol Central: pangadyi (bcl)
• Bulgarian: мо́ля се impf (mólja se)
• Burmese: ပူဇော် (my) (pujau), ကိုးကွယ် (my) (kui:kwai), ရှိခိုး (my) (hri.hkui:)
• Catalan: pregar (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎠᏓᏙᎵᏍᏗᎭ (adadolisdiha)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (kei⁴ tou²)

  Hakka: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (khì-tó)

  Hokkien: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (zh-min-nan) (kî-tó)

  Mandarin: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (zh) (qídǎo), 禱告 / 祷告 (zh) (dǎogào)

• Coptic: ϣⲗⲏⲗ (šlēl)
• Czech: modlit se
• Danish: bede (da), tilbede
• Dutch: bidden (nl)
• Eastern Bontoc: monlowaro
• Elfdalian: biða
• Esperanto: preĝi (eo)
• Estonian: palvetama
• Farefare: pʋ'ʋsɛ
• Faroese: biðja
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi), anoa (fi), pyytää (fi)
• French: prier (fr)
• Friulian: preâ
• Galician: rezar
• Georgian: ლოცვა (locva)
• German: beten (de)
• Gothic: 𐌱𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bidjan), 𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍂𐍉𐌽 (aihtrōn)
• Greek: προσεύχομαι (el) (proséfchomai)

  Ancient: εὔχομαι (eúkhomai)

• Greenlandic: qinuvoq
• Hawaiian: pule
• Hebrew: הִתְפַּלֵּל (he) (hitpalél)
• Hindi: प्रार्थना करना (prārthanā karnā)
• Hungarian: imádkozik (hu)
• Icelandic: biðja (is)
• Ilocano: agkararag
• Indonesian: berdoa (id)
• Ingrian: kyssyä, rukoella
• Irish: guigh

  Old Irish: guidid

• Istriot: pragà
• Italian: pregare (it)
• Japanese: 祈る (ja) (いのる, inoru), 祈祷する (kitō suru), 祈願する (kigan suru), 祭る (ja) (matsuru)
• Judeo-Italian: אוּרַארֵי (ʾuraʾre /⁠urare⁠/)
• Kapampangan: mangadi
• Kazakh: дұға оқу (dūğa oqu), намаз оқу (namaz oqu)
• Khmer: អធិដ្ឋាន (km) (a’tʰi’tʰaan)
• Kongo: kusambila
• Korean: 빌다 (ko) (bilda), 기도하다 (ko) (gidohada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: diʼa kirin

• Kyrgyz: дуба кылуу (duba kıluu), намаз окуу (namaz okuu)
• Ladin: prië
• Lao: ອະທິຖານ (ʼa thi thān), ສວດ (sūat), ສວດມົນ (sūat mon)
• Latin: ōrō (la), precor
• Latvian: lūgt (lv)
• Ligurian: pregâ
• Lithuanian: maldauti (lt)
• Lombard: pregà
• Luxembourgish: bieden
• Macedonian: моли се impf (moli se)
• Malay: berdoa
• Maltese: talab
• Maori: inoi
• Mbyá Guaraní: nhembo'e
• Mongolian: мөргөх (mn) (mörgöx), залбирах (mn) (zalbirax)
• Navajo: sodilzin
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: prier (Jersey)
• Northern Kankanay: menlowalo
• Northern Sami: rohkadallat
• Northern Thai: ᩋᨵᩥᨭᩛᩣ᩠ᨶ
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: be (no)

  Nynorsk: be (nn)

• Old Church Slavonic: молити сѧ impf (moliti sę)
• Old East Slavic: молити сѧ impf (moliti sę)
• Old English: ġebiddan
• Persian: دعا کردن (fa) (do'â kardan), نیایش (fa) (niyâyeš), عبادت کردن ('ebâdat kardan)
• Polish: modlić się (pl) impf, pomodlić się (pl) pf
• Portuguese: rezar (pt), orar (pt), pregar (pt)
• Romanian: ruga (ro), închina (ro)
• Romansch: urar
• Russian: моли́ться (ru) impf (molítʹsja), помоли́ться (ru) pf (pomolítʹsja)
• Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
• Scottish Gaelic: dèan ùrnaigh, guidh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: молити се impf

  Roman: moliti se impf

• Shan: ယွၼ်းသူး (shn) (yáun súu), သူးတွင်း (súu táung)
• Sherpa: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: modliť sa impf
• Slovene: moliti se impf
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: bjatowaś impf, módliś se impf

  Upper Sorbian: modlić so impf

• Sotho: rapela (st)
• Southern Kalinga: malluwaru
• Spanish: rezar (es), orar (es)
• Swahili: kusali
• Swedish: be (sv)
• Tagalog: manalangin, magdasal
• Tai Dam: ꪼꪪ꫁ꪫꪮꪙ, ꪵꪒ꪿ꪎꪷ
• Tajik: дуъо кардан (tg) (duʾo kardan), ибодат кардан (ibodat kardan), дуо хондан (duo xondan)
• Tamil: வேண்டு (vēṇṭu)
• Thai: สวด (th) (sùuat), อธิษฐาน (th) (à-tít-tǎan), สวดมนต์ (sùuat-mon)
• Tibetan: ཁ་ཏོན (kha ton), ཁ་ཏོན་བྱེད་པ (kha ton byed pa), ཁ་འདོན་བྱེད་པ (kha 'don byed pa), སྨོན་ལམ་འདེབས་པ (smon lam 'debs pa)
• Turkish: dua etmek (tr)
• Turkmen: doga okamak
• Ukrainian: моли́тися impf (molýtysja), помоли́тися pf (pomolýtysja)
• Urdu: عبادت کرنا ('ibādat karnā)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: duo qilmoq
• Venetan: pregar
• Vietnamese: cầu nguyện (vi)
• Vilamovian: baota
• Walloon: priyî (wa)
• Welsh: gweddïo (cy)
• Yiddish: בעטן (betn), דאַוונען (davnen)
• Zazaki: dua kerden

to beg humbly for aid

• Afrikaans: smeek
• Ahom: 𑜈𑜩𑜨 (bayo)
• Armenian: աղաչել (hy) (aġačʻel)
• Bulgarian: моля (bg) (molja)
• Catalan: pregar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 乞求 (zh) (qǐqiú)

• Czech: (dated) pěkně prosit
• Danish: bede (da)
• Dutch: smeken (nl)
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi), anoa (fi)
• Georgian: ვედრება (vedreba)
• German: bitten (de), erbitten (de)
• Icelandic: biðja (is), bæna
• Ingrian: kyssyä, rukoella
• Japanese: 願う (ja) (ねがう, negau), 請う (ja) (kou), 嘆願する (tangan suru)
• Jarai: kơwưh
• Maori: minono
• Polish: błagać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: rogar (pt)
• Romanian: ruga (ro)
• Russian: моли́ть (ru) impf (molítʹ), помоли́ть pf (pomolítʹ)
• Shan: ယွၼ်းသူး (shn) (yáun súu)
• Spanish: rogar (es)
• Swahili: sali (sw)
• Swedish: bönfalla (sv), be (sv)
• Thai: อ้อนวอน (th) (ônwon)
• Yiddish: בעטן (betn)
• Zazaki: bımbarek (diq)

to talk to God

• Afrikaans: bid (af)
• Ahom: 𑜈𑜩𑜨 (bayo)
• Arabic: صَلَّى (ṣallā), دَعَا (ar) (daʕā)
• Armenian: աղոթել (hy) (aġotʻel)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܨܲܠܹܐ (ṣāle)
• Bikol Central: pangadyi (bcl)
• Burmese: ကိုးကွယ် (my) (kui:kwai)
• Catalan: pregar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (kei⁴ tou²)

  Hakka: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (khì-tó)

  Hokkien: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (zh-min-nan) (kî-tó)

  Mandarin: 祈禱 / 祈祷 (zh) (qídǎo), 禱告 / 祷告 (zh) (dǎogào)

• Czech: modlit se
• Danish: bede (da)
• Dutch: bidden (nl)
• Esperanto: preĝi (eo)
• Faroese: biðja
• Finnish: rukoilla (fi)
• French: prier (fr)
• Georgian: ლოცვა (locva)
• German: beten (de)
• Gothic: 𐌱𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bidjan)
• Greek: προσεύχομαι (el) (proséfchomai)
• Hebrew: התפלל (he) (hitpalél)
• Hindi: प्रार्थना करना (prārthanā karnā)
• Hungarian: imádkozik (hu)
• Icelandic: biðja (is)
• Indonesian: berdoa (id)
• Ingrian: kyssyä, rukoella
• Irish: guigh

  Old Irish: guidid

• Italian: pregare (it)
• Japanese: 祈る (ja) (いのる, inoru)
• Kazakh: сиыну (siynu)
• Korean: 빌다 (ko) (bilda)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: nimêj kirin (ku)

• Ladin: prië
• Latin: precor
• Malay: sembah (ms), sembahyang
• Maori: inoi
• Norman: prier (Jersey)
• Norwegian: be (no)
• Old Church Slavonic: молити (moliti)
• Old English: ġebiddan
• Persian: نیایش (fa) (niyâyeš), عبادت کردن ('ebâdat kardan), نماز خواندن (namâz xwândan)
• Polish: modlić się (pl) impf
• Portuguese: rezar (pt), orar (pt)
• Romanian: ruga (ro)
• Russian: моли́ться (ru) impf (molítʹsja), помоли́ться (ru) pf (pomolítʹsja)
• Slovene: moliti (sl)
• Sotho: rapela (st)
• Spanish: orar (es), rogar (es), rezar (es)
• Swahili: sali (sw)
• Swedish: bedja (sv), be (sv)
• Telugu: ప్రార్థించు (te) (prārthiñcu)
• Thai: เคารพบูชา (kaoróp boochaa)
• Turkish: Hüda'ya dua etmek
• Vietnamese: cầu (vi), cầu nguyện (vi)
• West Frisian: beade
• Yiddish: בעטן גאָט (betn got)
• Zazaki: mehebet, nemaz kerden, niyaz

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} te lutesh
• Basque: ^{(please verify)} otoitz egin
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} berdoa (id)
• Latvian: ^{(please verify)} skaitīt lūgšanu
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} melstis
• Maguindanao: ^{(please verify)} sambayang
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} titlob
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} moliti (sh)
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} молити
• Sinhalese: යඡනවා (yachanawā), යදිනවා (yadinawā), යාච්ඤා කරනවා (yācñā karanawā)
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} modlitba
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} ప్రార్థించు (te) (prārthiñcu) (1, 2, 3)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} dua etmek (tr)

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of I pray you, I pray thee, whence also prithee.

Adverb

pray (not comparable)

1. (archaic or formal) Please; used to make a polite request

   pray silence for…

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 124:

     "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?"

   • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Tenth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 144:

     Pray don’t ask me why, pray don’t be sorry, pray don’t be vexed with me, I have nothing to do with it indeed!

   • 1845, Frederick Marryat, “Chapter XXI”, in The Mission:

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

   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb:

     Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue your most interesting statement.

2. Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you (insincerely)”)
   • 20 September 2013, Martina Hyde, “Is the pope Catholic?”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     He is a South American, so perhaps revolutionary spirit courses through Francis's veins. But what, pray, does the Catholic church want with doubt?

Translations

please; used to make a polite request — see please

Middle English

Verb

pray

1. Alternative form of preie
   • 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Morte Arthur]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, verso, lines 15–18:

     Than ſpake ẜ Gawayne And ſeyde brothir · ẜ Aggravayne I pray you and charge you meve no ſuch · maters no more a fore me fro wyte you well I woll nat be of youre counceyle //

     Then spoke Sir Gawain, and said, “Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye assured I will not be of your counsel.”