Word.ws English Dictionary

array

UK/əˈɹeɪ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/əˈɹæɪ/

array noun: clothing and ornamentation; raiment.

Noun

array (countable and uncountable, plural arrays)

  1. Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.
    • Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride.2017, anonymous author, “Sovay”, in Roud # 7, Laws N21
    • In this Remembrance Emily e’re day / Aroſe, and dreſs’d her ſelf in rich Array […]1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book I, page 8
  2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
    • The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced...1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament...
    • Upon leaving the center, I photographed the colorful array of petunias decorating the square in purple, pink, yellow, white, and magenta.2002, David L. Thompson, “River of Memories -An Appalachian Boyhood”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 69
  3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
    • But the chivalry of France was represented by as gallant an array of nobles and cavaliers as ever fought under the banner of the lilies1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC
    • SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 — Pacific Gas & Electric, Northern California’s major utility, is announcing a commitment on Wednesday to purchase 550 megawatts of solar power to be generated by troughlike arrays of mirrors spread over nine square miles in the Mojave Desert.2007 July 25, Felicity Barringer, “California Utility Agrees to Buy Power Generated by Solar Array”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 05 May 2021
  4. Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.
    • drawn up in battle array
    • wedged together in the closest array1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC
  5. A large collection.
    • We offer a dazzling array of choices.
    • Again his waves in milder tints unfold / Their long array of sapphire and of gold, / Mixt with the shades of many a distant isle, / That frown—where gentler ocean seems to smile.1814, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in The Corsair, a Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 64, lines 1218–1211
    Synonyms:
    panoply
  6. A matrix.
  7. Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
  8. A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
  9. A militia.
  10. (collective) A group of hedgehogs.
    • The array of hedgehogs that have their own running club2021 November 26, Jon McMichael, “The array of hedgehogs that have their own running club”, in KOAA News5, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026
    • If you get your hands on several of these cuties, you've got yourself an "array of hedgehogs."2015 December 9, “Cute alert: Arizona officials make pet hedgehogs legal”, in Arizona Republic, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026
  11. A microarray.

Verb

array (third-person singular simple present arrays, present participle arraying, simple past and past participle arrayed)

  1. To clothe and ornament; to adorn or attire.
    • He was arrayed in his finest robes and jewels.
    • In a long purple pall, whose ſkirt with gold, / Was fretted all about, ſhe was arayd, […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37, page 317
  2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.
    • It is a noble ambition, and the forces arrayed against it are mighty.2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN
  3. To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.
    • Alſo, though there be no perſonal objection againſt the ſheriff, yet if he arrays the panel at the nomination, or under the direction of either party, this is good cauſe of challenge to the array.1768, William Blackstone, “Of the Trial by Jury”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 359

array meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

array in Hindi

array, decoration, ornamentation, attire
सज्जा sajjā

array in Tamil

அணி, வரிசை, படையணி, மக்களின் அணிவகுப்பு, பரிவாரம், அணிகலன்கள்

array in Marathi

any of various data structures
अॅरे aĕre

array in Urdu

لباس, صف آرائی, سجاوٹ, ترتیب, صف آرا کرنا, سجانا
More languagesFewer languages
array in Bengali
সজ্জা, বিন্যাস, বিশাল সংগ্রহ
array in Malayalam
പംക്തി paṅkti
array in Kannada
ಅಣಿ aṇi
array in Punjabi
ਐਰੇ, ਸਰਣੀ, ਅਰੇਰੇ
array in Gujarati
એરે
array in Odia
ସରଣୀ
array in Sanskrit
अंशु aṃśú
array in Nepali
सरणी, एरे, एर्रे
array in Arabic
مَصْفُوفَة maṣfūfa
array in Indonesian
jajaran
array in Persian
آرایه ârâye
array in Vietnamese
mảng

Examples of array in a sentence

  • They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:
  • The ad shows an array of hedgehogs shopping in a supermarket2014 February 19, Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn, “Listen up hedgehogs: Arla’s Lactofree ad is not misleading”, in Food Navigator, archived from...
  • However, hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard...

All 40 example sentences with array

Synonyms of array

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of array

Forms of array

Noun
pluralarrays
Verb
third-person singular presentarrays
present participlearraying
past participlearrayed
pastarrayed

Past tense of array: arrayed

Plural of array: arrays

Origin of array

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar Latin *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *raid or *raidā (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Compare Old English rād (“condition, stipulation”), Old High German antreitī (“order, rank”). Doublet of ready.

Words formed from array

Phrases with array

15 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with array

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about array

What does array mean?
Array means clothing and ornamentation; raiment.
What is array in Hindi?
Array in Hindi is सज्जा (sajjā). See Array meaning in Hindi.
How do you use array in a sentence?
They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.
What part of speech is array?
Array can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce array?
Array is pronounced /əˈɹeɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of array?
The plural of array is arrays.

Words near array in the dictionary

  1. arraus
  2. Arrawak
  3. Arrawaks
  4. Arrawarra
  5. Arrawarra Headland
  6. array
  7. array cable
  8. array cables
  9. array controller
  10. array controllers
  11. array decay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: array (page history and authors); सज्जा (Hindi) (page history and authors); array (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); array (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); array (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); പംക്തി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಅಣಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); array (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); array (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); array (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); अंशु (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); array (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-array.ogg.

Cite this entry: “array.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/array. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.