• Ray

    Pronunciation

    • RP enPR: rā, IPA: /ɹeɪ/
    • Rhymes: -eɪ

    Origin 1

    Via Middle English, from Old French rai, from Latin radius ("staff, stake, spoke").

    Full definition of ray

    Noun

    ray

    (plural rays)
    1. A beam of light or radiation.I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
    2. (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
    3. (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
    4. (botany) A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
    5. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
      • Alexander PopeAll eyes direct their rays
        On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
    6. (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
    7. (colloquial) A tiny amount.Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope.

    Derived terms

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
    2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays

    Origin 2

    Old French raie, from Latin raia.

    Noun

    ray

    (plural rays)
    1. A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

    Origin 3

    Shortened from array.

    Verb

    1. (obsolete) To arrange. 14th-18th c.
    2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone). from 14th c.
    3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile. 16th-19th c.
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.4:From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away,
        And form his face the filth that did it ray ....

    Origin 4

    From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.

    Noun

    ray

    (plural rays)
    1. The name of the letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

    Related terms

    • ar, in Latin and the name of the other Pitman r

    Origin 5

    Noun

    ray

    (uncountable)
    1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
      • SpenserAnd spoiling all her gears and goodly ray.

    Origin 6

    Alternative forms.

    Noun

    ray

    (plural rays)
    1. (music) Alternative form of re

    Anagrams

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