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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ray.

A beam of light or radiation.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A beam of light or radiation.

    I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
  2. A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.

  3. One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.

  4. 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. Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.

    obsolete
  6. A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.

Where this word comes from

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.

verb/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To emit something as if in rays.

    transitive
  2. To radiate as if in rays.

    intransitive
  3. To expose to radiation.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.

noun/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English raye, rayȝe, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, reȝge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).

verb/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To arrange.

    obsolete
  2. To dress, array (someone).

    archaic
  3. To stain or soil; to defile.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Shortened from array.

noun/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Array; order; arrangement; dress.

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Shortened from array.

noun/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

Where this word comes from

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

noun/ɹeɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Alternative form of re.

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

Alternative forms.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.