Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Predatory |
PredatoryAdjective1. Characterized by plundering or pillaging or marauding; "bands of marauding Indians"; "predatory warfare"; "a raiding party". 2. Living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey; "a predatory bird"; "the rapacious wolf"; "raptorial birds"; "ravening wolves"; "a vulturine taste for offal". 3. Living by or given to victimizing others for personal gain; "predatory capitalists"; "a predatory, insensate society in which innocence and decency can prove fatal"- Peter S. Prescott; "a predacious kind of animal--the early geological gangster"- W.E.Swinton. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "predatory" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1814. (references) |
Etymology: Predatory \Pred"a*to*ry\, adjective. [Latin expression praedatorius, from praedari to plunder, from praeda prey. See Prey.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: PredatorySynonyms: marauding (adj), predaceous (adj), predacious (adj), raiding (adj), rapacious (adj), raptorial (adj), ravening (adj), vulturine (adj), vulturous (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Stealing | Adjective: thieving; Verb: thievish, light-fingered; furacious, furtive; piratical; predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial; raptorial; (rapacious). |
Taking | Adjective: taking;Verb: privative, prehensile; predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial; lupine, rapacious, raptorial; ravenous; parasitic. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Predatory |
| English words defined with "predatory": Arilus cristatus ♦ bee killer, bounty ♦ esurient ♦ famished, Forray ♦ Gempylus serpens, grampus ♦ killer, killer whale, king of beasts ♦ lion ♦ odonate, orca, Orcinus orca ♦ Panthera leo, predaceous, predacious, Predal, Predatorily, premium, prowl ♦ rapacious, raptorial, ravening, ravenous, robber fly, rove beetle ♦ sea wolf, sharp-set, snake mackerel, snakefly, spider, starved ♦ varment, varmint, viverrine, viverrine mammal, vulturine, vulturous ♦ wheel bug, wolf. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "predatory": GAME-FARM HELPER ♦ laborer, game farm ♦ MANAGER, GAME PRESERVE, mutton puncher ♦ Numerical response ♦ Rosey cannibal snail ♦ SHEEP HERDER, Skinners. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | This predatory beetle, Thanasimus formicarius, can eat about three pine shoot beetles daily for up to 3 months. The pine shoot beetle is a destructive pest of pine trees in about 150 U.S. counties. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Howard Scott | A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Rates will be free of regulation but cross subsidies and predatory pricing will be prohibited. (references) | |
It is also prohibited to practice predatory pricing where products are sold below production cost for the purpose of ruining competitors or preventing new companies from entering the market. (references) | ||
Economic History | Pakistan | Australian wheat, however, continues to make significant inroads into this market through the use of predatory pricing, cheap freight and credit, and other non-market tactics. (references) |
Kenya | Incoming foreign investment through acquisitions, mergers or takeovers is governed by antitrust legislation that prohibits restrictive and predatory practices that prevent the establishment of competitive markets. (references) | |
Azerbaijan | Government bureaucracy, weak legal institutions and predatory behavior by politically-connected monopoly interests have severely hindered investment outside of the energy sector. (references) | |
Political Economy | REPUBLIC OF KOREA | The Korean Industrial Property Office (KIPO) is able to reject suspected predatory applications based on a "bad faith" clause. (references) |
REPUBLIC OF KOREA | While preemptive and predatory filings are on the decline, "sleeper" preemptive registrations still surface on occasion. (references) | |
Trade | China | Anti-Competitive Practices: China continues to struggle with economic inefficiencies and investment disincentives created by local protectionism, predatory pricing, preservation of industry-wide monopolies, and monopolistic practices designed to protect the state-owned sector. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Adams | 1797-1801 | Nevertheless, to guard against sudden and predatory incursions the situation of some of our principal sea ports demands your consideration. |
Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | The Federal Government must protect legitimate business and consumers from predatory and monopolistic practices by the vigilant enforcement of regulatory legislation. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Predatory" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.39% of the time. "Predatory" is used about 328 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.39% | 326 | 15,930 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.61% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 328 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "predatory": predatory animal ♦ predatory animals ♦ Predatory Behavior ♦ predatory birds ♦ predatory game ♦ predatory lending ♦ Predatory price ♦ predatory rapacious raptorial ravening vulturine vulturous. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "predatory": non-predatory. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "predatory"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | lakmitar (covetous, greedy, hoggish, lickerish), grabitqar (predacious, predator, rapacious, raptorial, ravenous, vulture, wolfish), grabitës (depredator, flayer, looter, marauder, mugger, pillager, plunderer, reaver, reiver, robber). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كاسر (breaker, rapacious), مفترس (predacious, rapacious, ravenous, voracious), نهاب (rapacious), نهبي, سلاب, سلبي (minus, negative, passive, supine, unfavorable, unfavourable), طير جارح (bird of prey, prey), طماع (avid, grasping, greedy, kidnapper, pushing, rapacious, ravening), ضار (detrimental, felled, ferocious, fierce, hurtful, impish, injurious, malign, malignant, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pest, poisonous, prejudicial, rabid, rapacious, ravenous, savage, set, sharp, truculent, unhealthy, unwholesome, vicious), جارح (acrid, cutting, injurious, offensive, painful, wounding), جشع (an itching palm, avarice, avaricious, avidity, cupidity, grasping, greed, greedy, mercenary, rapacious, rapacity, ravening), الكواسر, شره (avid, avidity, cormorant, gluttonous, gourmand, greed, greedy, gross, hoggish, lickerish, pig, piggish, solicitous, voracious, voracity). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | хищнически (predacious), хищен (accipitrine, covetous, predacious, rapacious, raptorial, vulturous), граблив (predacious, rapacious, raptorial), грабителски (extortionate, predacious, rapacious, ravenous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 食性. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | loupeživý, dravý (ferocious, fierce, predacious, rapacious, rapid). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | rovmide (auxiliary, linopodes mite, predaceous mite, predatory mite, red gamasid mite), rovfisk (predatory fish), rovdrift (predatory exploitation, ruthless exploitation), dumpingspris (Predatory price), ødelæggende markedsadgang (predatory market entry). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | via dumping een plaats op de markt veroveren (predatory market entry), roofvis (predatory fish), roofmijt (linopodes mite, predaceous mite, predatory mite, red gamasid mite), roofbouw (predatory exploitation, ruthless exploitation), keten van inhaligheid (predatory chain), dumpprijs (Predatory price). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | یغماگر, غارتگر (Marauder, Robber), تغذیه کننده ازشکار, درنده (Fierce). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | raateleva (rapacious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | prédateur (predator), pillard, vorace, rapace (bird of prey, predator), de proie, avide. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | räuberisch (piratically, predacious, predatorily, rapacious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ληστρικόσ (brigandish, brigandlike), αρπακτικόσ (curmudgeon, grasping, predaceous, predacious, rapacious, raptorial, ravening, ravenous, ravishing, vulturous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | חמס י (rapacious, violent), טרפ י. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | zsákmányra vadászó (predacious), zsákmányoló (predacious, spoiler), ragadozó (carnivorous, lupine, predacious, predator, rapacious, raptorial, ravening, vulturous), rabló (conquistador, harrier, mugger, predacious, robber). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | predatore (marauder, plunderer, plundering, predator, vermin), rapace (greedy, predaceous, rapacious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 약탈하". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | oaldey (rapacious, savage, uncivilized, wild, wild as animal, wolfish), craghagh (raptorial). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | edatorypray predatório (rapacious), depredatório. (various references) prãdalnic (plunderous), spoliator (despoiler, rapacious), rãpitor (charming, grasping, predacious, rapacious, rapturous, ravishing), jefuitor (looter, marauder, plunderer, robber, robbing, spoiler, spoliator), de pradã (marauding, predacious, raptorial), acaparator (absorbing, accumulator, acquisitive, buyer-up, covetous, engrossing, food hoarder, forestalling, grabber, grasping, greedy, money making, money-grabbing, monopolizer). (various references) грабительский (burglarious, extortionate, rapacious, ravenous). (various references) pljačkaški (marauding), grabljiv (grasping, predacious, rapacious, ravenous, vulturous). (various references) depredador (depredator, predator), de rapiña (predaceous, predacious). (various references) rov- (predacious, rapacious, raptorial). (various references) yağmacı (depredator, freebooter, grabber, harrier, looter, marauder, plunderer, reaver), yırtıcı (ferocious, predaceous, predacious, rapacious, raptorial, ravenous, ripper, savage). (various references) wagюy. (various references) хижацький, хижий (predacious, rapacious, ravenous, sharking, vulturous). (various references) ăn cướp (depredatory, freebooting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "predatory": depredatory. (additional references) | |
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"Predatory" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: perduto, Pesatori, preadator, precatory, predador, predater, predentary, predetor, preditor, preditory, predtor, prelator, prepatory, productory. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "predatory" (pronounced pre"dutô'rē) |
| 6 | -d u t ô' r ē | auditory, laudatory, mandatory. |
| 5 | -u t ô' r ē | accusatory, aleatory, ambulatory, anticipatory, articulatory, celebratory, circulatory, compensatory, conciliatory, confirmatory, confiscatory, congratulatory, contributory, declaratory, defamatory, depilatory, depository, derogatory, dilatory, discriminatory, dormitory, excretory, exculpatory, expiratory, explanatory, exploratory, hallucinatory, incantatory, inflammatory, inhibitory, interrogatory, investigatory, laboratory, lavatory, migratory, nondiscriminatory, obligatory, observatory, oratory, oscillatory, participatory, preparatory, prohibitory, purgatory, reformatory, regulatory, repository, respiratory, retaliatory, revelatory, signatory, statutory, territory, transitory. |
| 4 | -t ô' r ē | desultory, multistory, repertory, understory. |
| 3 | -ô' r ē | allegory, category, outlawry, promissory. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: portrayed. | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-o-p-r-r-t-y" | |
-1 letter: parroted, predator, prorated, teardrop. | |
-2 letters: adopter, drapery, eardrop, parroty, partyer, portray, praetor, prorate, readopt. | |
-3 letters: adorer, artery, darter, depart, deport, dorper, draper, drapey, dreary, orated, parody, parred, parrot, parted, petard, poetry, ported, porter, prated, prater, prayed, prayer, pretor, protea, raptor, redtop, report, retard, roared, ropery, rotary, tarred, teapoy, trader. | |
-4 letters: adept, adopt, adore, apery. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-o-p-r-r-t-y" | |
+2 letters: deprecatory, depredatory, predicatory. | |
+3 letters: depreciatory, hydrotherapy, radiotherapy. | |
+4 letters: daguerreotype, daguerreotypy, deprecatorily. | |
+5 letters: daguerreotyped, daguerreotypes, hydrotherapies, preponderantly, preponderately. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 72 65 64 61 74 6F 72 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .-. . -.. .- - --- .-. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01110010 01100101 01100100 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P r e d a t o r y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0072 0065 0064 0061 0074 006F 0072 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)508471706786818491 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
