n. 1
The loot attained by plundering.
The Hessian kept his choicest plunder in a sack that never left his person, for fear that his comrades would steal it.
v. 1
To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.
The mercenaries plundered the small town.
v. 2
To take (goods) by pillage.
The mercenaries plundered all the goods they found.
v. 3
To take by force or wrongfully; to commit robbery or looting, to raid.
“Now to plunder, mateys!” screamed a buccaneer, to cries of “Arrgh!” and “Aye!” all around.

Related words

Word family: plunderer plunderous
Phrases: house plunder

Forms

Past participle: plundered
e.g. plundered → ravaged, rifled, devastated, desolated…

Choose the right word

or Plunder?

Pillage refers particularly to the act of stripping the sufferers of their goods, while plunder refers to the removal of the things thus taken; but the words are freely interchanged.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Example sentences

sack All I found in the pantry was a sack of hard bread.
booty I will never be anyone's booty call nor second option!
loot The thieves divided their loot among themselves.
pillage France began to pillage Algeria in 1830.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
plunder		steady
sack		rising
booty		rising
loot		rising
pillage		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: rob¹
4 letters: rape¹, prey¹, sack¹, haul¹, loot¹, swag
5 letters: prize¹, strip¹, rifle², spoil¹, booty², foray², prise, reave¹
6 letters: fleece¹, spoils¹, forage², ravage², bootle, rapine
7 letters: robbery³, luggage², violate³, pillage², ransack², despoil
8 letters: stealing², desolate³, spoliate
9 letters: devastate³, marauding³, expiation
10 letters: spoliation
11 letters: depredation⁴, freebooting

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (rifle² = 2 syllables).