Predation

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The preying of one animal on others. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the act of preying by a predator who kills and eats the prey wordnet
  3. 3
    The action of attacking or plundering. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "[…]this priest roade in his goune of velvet, with a greate trayne, and was received into every Religion with Procession, as though the legate had bene there, and toke such greate sommes for his visitacion, that the religious sore were greved, and murmured much against it, and in especiall, for they were charged with greate sommes of money to the kyng, and now thys sodayn visitacion or predacion, cleane shaved them."

  4. 4
    an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
depredationdepredation

Example

More examples

"Several species of Wētā are under threat from predation by birds and reptiles, and habitat loss."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praedātiō, praedātiōnis, from praedor (“pillage, plunder”), from praeda (“plunder, spoils”).

Related phrases

indirect predationsecondary predation

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.