pray
/pɹeɪ/verb, adverb
pray is spelled P-R-A-Y: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pray vs prey” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, pray means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in pray?
| Letters | 4: P-R-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 25 times per million words; the 3,612th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is pray?
Pray appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce pray?
- /pɹeɪ/
Pray has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pray.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pray
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: prey (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: pray tell.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of pray
- prays present, singular, he/she/it
- praying participle, present
- prayed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pray mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
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.
- 2
To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
- 3
obsoleteTo ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
- 4
To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.
She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.
- 5
obsoleteTo implore, to entreat, to request.
adverb
- 1
archaicPlease; used to make a polite request
pray silence for…
- 2
Alternative form of pray tell (“I ask you”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pray in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | prier |
| German | beten , bitten, erbitten |
| Portuguese | rezar, orar, pregar , rogar |
| Spanish | rezar, orar , rogar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pray come from?
Inherited from Middle English preien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, from prex (“request, petition, prayer”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to request, ask”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).