Persecute or prosecute?
persecute is a verb meaning “To pursue in a manner to do harm or cruelty to; especially, because of the…”; prosecute is a verb meaning “To start criminal proceedings against”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) prosecute is about 5.6 times as common as persecute.
What is the difference between persecute and prosecute?
| persecute | prosecute | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To pursue in a manner to do harm or cruelty to; especially, because of the victim's race, sexual identity, or adherence to a particular belief To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy | To start criminal proceedings against To charge, try |
| Example | He who persecutes one will persecute all | to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot |
| Forms | persecutes, persecuting, persecuted | prosecutes, prosecuting, prosecuted |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpɝsəkjut/ /ˈpɜːsɪkjuːt/ | /ˈpɹɒsɪkjuːt/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 3.5 times per million words |
Sources: persecute and prosecute in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of persecute and prosecute
persecute
- 1
To pursue in a manner to do harm or cruelty to; especially, because of the victim's race, sexual identity, or adherence to a particular belief
He who persecutes one will persecute all
- 2
To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy
- 3
To kill many of one species of animal, with the intent of removing them from human habitats
Humans have been persecuting wolves in this forest for centuries
prosecute
- 1
To start criminal proceedings against
to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot
- 2
To charge, try
- 3
To seek to obtain by legal process
to prosecute a right or a claim in a court of law
- 4
To pursue something to the end
to prosecute a scheme, hope, or an investigation
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, persecute or prosecute?
persecute appears about once in every 2 million words; prosecute 3.5 times per million words.
persecute about once in every 2 million wordsprosecute 3.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search persecute vs prosecute?
“persecute vs prosecute” is searched about 30 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.