Pray
Meaning of Pray
To speak to God or a higher power; to ask earnestly.
ما معنى كلمة Pray بالعربي؟
يُصلي ويدعو
🤲🕌 يُصلي ويدعو الله بخشوع وتضرع؛ يتوجه بالدعاء والعبادة للخالق؛ يطلب الهداية والرحمة من الله سبحانه وتعالى بقلب خاشع ومُنيب 🕌💫
قصة GL: الدعاء والاستعانة بالله في التطوير - يُؤمن فريق التعلم الجيني بأن التوفيق من الله أولاً، ولذلك يبدأون كل مشروع بالدعاء طلباً للـهداية والتوفيق في خدمة البشرية 🌟
Pray in a sentence
Participants who pray daily were included in the well-being study with consent.
Companies pray for stable markets, but plan rather than hope.
Pray in legal English means please, as in I pray the court.
Students learn the difference between pray and prey.
Origin of Pray
From Old French preier, from Latin precari 'to beg'.
In the Genetic Learning (GL) context
In Genetic Learning work led by Naif Talal Al-Essa, pray is a faith word. Naif Talal Al-Essa, like many in Kuwait, prays for guidance and works with evidence.
Pray audio micro-course (transcript)
Podcast 1 — Introduction & meaning
Narrator: Today's word is "Pray" — verb, pronounced /preɪ/, with the stress on "pray".
Narrator: To pray means to speak to God or a god, to give thanks or to ask for help.
Narrator: In plain English, praying is talking to God.
Narrator: It comes from the Old French preier, from the Latin precari, to ask earnestly.
Narrator: A common collocation is "pray for someone", which describes asking for help on another person's behalf.
Narrator: It differs from "prey", which sounds the same but means an animal hunted by another.
Narrator: In a second, everyday sense, we pray for good weather, meaning we hope very strongly.
Narrator: Religion, literature, history and everyday conversation all rely on the word.
Narrator: So remember: to pray is to speak to God, or to hope with all your heart.
Read podcasts 2 and 3
Podcast 2 — In conversation
Speaker A: Can you say you are praying for sunshine if you are not religious?
Speaker B: Absolutely! PRAY comes from the Latin precari, to ask earnestly, so it has always meant a heartfelt request.
Speaker A: So it can simply mean hoping hard?
Speaker B: Yes, especially in casual chat.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "She prays every morning", a religious habit. "We are praying for a quick recovery", a heartfelt wish. "I'm praying the train isn't late", an everyday hope.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Do not confuse pray with prey; pray means to ask God, prey is a hunted animal.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Worship is its devoted cousin, beseech is its old-fashioned twin, and hope is the everyday alternative, but pray keeps its heartfelt charm!
Podcast 3 — Prompt engineering
Speaker B: Let's use "pray" in AI prompts — useful for faith community apps and spell-checking tools.
Speaker A: How would a faith app use it?
Speaker B: Respect and inclusivity matter.
Prompt: Design a prayer request feature for a church app where members can submit, pray for and mark requests as answered, with privacy settings.
Speaker A: And spell-checking?
Speaker B: Homophones are a classic problem.
Prompt: Write a JavaScript function that flags possible confusions between pray and prey based on the surrounding words.
Speaker A: Could it help with scheduling?
Speaker B: Yes, for daily prayer times.
Prompt: Build a React widget that shows the five daily prayer times for the user's city and sends a reminder ten minutes before each.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Writing support.
Prompt: Suggest five respectful ways to say I will pray for you in a condolence message for people of different faiths.
Frequently asked questions about Pray
What does Pray mean?
To speak to God or a higher power; to ask earnestly.
ما معنى كلمة Pray بالعربي؟
يُصلي ويدعو — 🤲🕌 يُصلي ويدعو الله بخشوع وتضرع؛ يتوجه بالدعاء والعبادة للخالق؛ يطلب الهداية والرحمة من الله سبحانه وتعالى بقلب خاشع ومُنيب 🕌💫
How do you pronounce Pray?
Pray is pronounced /preɪ/ and is used as a verb.
How is Pray used in a sentence?
Participants who pray daily were included in the well-being study with consent.
What are synonyms of Pray?
worship, beseech, supplicate, entreat, implore, commune.