“Pray” or “Prey”—Which to use?

“Pray” or “Prey”

Overview

pray / prey are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term. 👇

Definitions

pray: (verb) address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer.

prey: (noun) a person who is the aim of an attack (especially a victim of ridicule or exploitation) by some hostile person or influence. (noun) animal hunted or caught for food. (verb) profit from in an exploitatory manner.

Pronunciation

pray: p·r·EY

prey: p·r·EY

Trends

📈 See Trends

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Get Sapling

Examples in Context

Examples of “pray”

…legal authority for councils to pray at their meetings as it…
I pray you to exert yourself and…
Waltrip also performed a prayer asking for strength, pray for…
…and recommended his flock to pray for God's blessing on Adolf
"Pray For Me" – 3:42
…power would permit councils to pray at their meetings, and therefore…
…be given total freedom to pray and worship and observe as…
…that it believes, and we pray that God may grant it…
Pray For India
…over the world come to pray at his grave" as "pilgrimage…

Examples of “prey”

…close to her often fall prey to misfortunes.
Unless a forager has captured prey, workers stay on trees for…
…most boas, they swallow their prey whole and feed approximately once…
Prey items are usually less than…
…been conserved, it caught its prey swimming using its rather soft…
…a preference for very specific prey.
The workers search for prey in piles of leaves, killing…
…also hamper the escape of prey items, so increasing the ants'…
…to help them hunt larger prey.
…into the body of a prey animal to stun it and…

(Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions drawn from WordNet.)

Too Much to Remember?

Install Sapling