Predator

//ˈpɹɛd.ə.tɚ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other nonplant organisms (their prey), primarily for food.

    "Hives should be positioned, oriented and protected to avoid predators and ensure survival in the meliponary. A study (pers. obs.) of predators shows that the main culprits in a Malaysian meliponary are frogs and lizards."

  2. 2
    any animal that lives by preying on other animals wordnet
  3. 3
    Someone who attacks and plunders for gain.
  4. 4
    someone who attacks in search of booty wordnet
  5. 5
    A sexual predator.

Synonyms

All synonyms
bloodsuckerharpyleechmaraudermarauderpiranha

Example

More examples

"The most visible forms of aggression are often seen between prey and predator."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praedātor, from praedor (“loot, pillage”), from praeda (“booty, spoils, prey”).

Related phrases

ambush predatoranti-predatorapex predatorpredator bugpredator satiationpredator saturationsexual predatorsit-and-wait predatorsexual predator

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