prey
/pɹeɪ/noun, verb
prey is spelled P-R-E-Y: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pray vs prey” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, prey means “That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of prey is preys.
How many letters and syllables are in prey?
| Letters | 4: P-R-E-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words; the 7,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is prey?
Prey appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th 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 prey?
- /pɹeɪ/
Prey 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-prey.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with prey
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: pray (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with prey?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as prey.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: pyre.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of prey
- preys plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- preying participle, present
- preyed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does prey mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured.
The deer became prey to the lion.
- 2
A person or thing given up as a victim.
- 3
A living thing, usually an animal, that is eaten by another living thing.
The rabbit was eaten by the coyote, so the rabbit is the coyote's prey.
- 4
archaicAnything, such as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; something taken by force from an enemy in war.
- 5
archaicThe act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
- 6
The victim of a disease.
He became the prey of dengue.
verb
- 1
To act as a predator.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Prey in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | butin, prise , proie |
| German | Beute , lauern, auflauern |
| Portuguese | preia, presa , predação |
| Spanish | botín , presa |
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 prey come from?
From Middle English preye, prei, preyȝe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French preie, one of the variants of proie, from Latin praeda. Compare predator. Doublet of prede.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).