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“Pray” or “Prey”

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.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

pray p·r·EY

  • verbaddress a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer.

prey p·r·EY

  • nouna person who is the aim of an attack (especially a victim of ridicule or exploitation) by some hostile person or influence.
  • nounanimal hunted or caught for food.
  • verbprofit from in an exploitatory manner.
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“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…

“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 are drawn from WordNet.

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