piracy

piracy — noun

1. the violent crime of using a boat to chase down ships on the ocean and steal car

1.nounB2
Definition

the violent crime of using a boat to chase down ships on the ocean and steal cargo, money, or weapons from the people on board.

Example

Piracy off the coast of Somalia made shipping companies hire armed guards for their oil tankers.

piracy off the coast of [region]

The navy captain spent his career fighting piracy in the busy waters near Singapore.

fighting piracy + location

Common collocations
  • maritime piracy
  • modern-day piracy
  • an act of piracy
  • fight piracy
  • combat piracy
Synonyms
  • buccaneering

    old-fashioned and romantic; usually about historical pirates of the 1600s-1700s

  • sea robbery

    plain descriptive term; sometimes used in legal news reports

  • hijacking

    broader — covers ships, planes, and trucks; piracy is specifically at sea

Grammar Patterns

piracy off [region]

an act of piracy

Usage Note

Almost always uncountable. The phrase 'an act of piracy' is the standard way to talk about a single incident. Often paired with a location: 'piracy off the coast of...', 'piracy in the [Strait/Gulf of...]'.

Common Mistakes

Three piracies happened last month near the port.
Three acts of piracy happened last month near the port.
piracy is uncountable; use 'acts of piracy' to count separate events.

2. the practice of making and sharing copies of films, songs, software, or books wi

2.nounB2
Definition

the practice of making and sharing copies of films, songs, software, or books without permission from the people who own the rights — for example, downloading a movie from a free website instead of paying to watch it.

Example

Music piracy fell sharply once cheap streaming services like Spotify became popular.

music / film / software piracy

The studio lost millions of dollars to online piracy in the first week after the film's release.

lose [money] to piracy

Common collocations
  • online piracy
  • music piracy
  • film piracy
  • software piracy
  • fight piracy
  • anti-piracy laws
Synonyms
  • bootlegging

    informal; usually about illegal copies sold for money, especially recordings

  • copyright infringement

    formal and legal; the umbrella term that includes piracy as one common type

  • counterfeiting

    covers fake physical goods broadly (handbags, money, medicine); piracy is specifically about creative works

Grammar Patterns

[noun] piracy

piracy of [creative work]

Usage Note

Frequently appears as a compound: 'music piracy', 'film piracy', 'software piracy', 'video-game piracy'. Distinguish from sense 1 by the fixed compound — when the word in front names a creative product or media type, it is always this sense, never sea robbery.

Common Mistakes

I committed piracy by quoting his article without naming him.
I committed plagiarism by quoting his article without naming him.
piracy is about copying and selling or sharing whole works; plagiarism is about presenting someone's words or ideas as your own.

Word family

  • pirate
    nounB1
  • pirate
    verbB2
  • pirated
    adjectiveB2
  • piratical
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

All five words involve taking something that belongs to someone else, but the targets and the seriousness differ. 'Copyright infringement' is the legal umbrella term — any unauthorized use of protected work, even quoting too much of a book. 'Piracy' is a specific, large-scale type of infringement: copying whole films, albums, or programs and sharing or selling them. 'Bootlegging' is informal and usually means selling unofficial recordings, often of live concerts. 'Counterfeiting' covers fake physical products in general, including handbags, money, and medicine, not just creative works. 'Plagiarism' is different again: it is about claiming someone's words or ideas as your own, regardless of money. Compare: a student who downloads a film commits piracy; a student who copies a paragraph from a website into their essay commits plagiarism.

piracy ↗copyright infringement ↗bootleggingcounterfeitingplagiarism

Common collocations

Nouns

  • act of piracy
  • piracy laws
  • piracy site
  • piracy rate
  • piracy problem

Adverbs

Phrases

  • fight piracy
  • combat piracy
  • tackle piracy
  • anti-piracy measures
  • victim of piracy

Prepositions

  • piracy off [a coast]
  • piracy in [waters/region]
  • piracy of [a work]

Etymology

GreekMedieval LatinEnglish

The word came into English in the late 1500s from Medieval Latin 'piratia', which itself was borrowed from Greek 'peirateia', meaning 'a sea attack'. The Greek root 'peira' meant 'an attempt' or 'a try', and a 'peirates' was someone who tried his luck by attacking ships. For centuries the word only meant robbery at sea, but in the 1600s English writers began using it loosely for the unauthorized reprinting of books. That figurative use became fixed in modern times, so today 'piracy' covers both ocean attacks and the illegal copying of films, music, and software.