Word.ws English Dictionary

ray

/ɹeɪ/UK/ɹeɪ/

ray noun: a beam of light or radiation. Also the alternative form of re.

ray: a beam of light or radiation
Image: Spiralz, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ray (plural rays)

  1. A beam of light or radiation.
    • I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
    • Strangely light and delicate was his frame and seeming, yet with a sense of slumbering power beneath, as the delicate peak of a snow mountain seen afar in the low red rays of morning.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 5
  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. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
    • All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC
  6. A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.

Verb (1)

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

  1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
    • He was one of the unthanked benefactors of his race, who was patiently teaching and serving mankind, whilst they were shrinking from his coldness, or mocking his peculiarities. He could not sing for them a sweet song, or create a “thing of beauty” which should be “a joy for ever,” or touch their...1851, George Wilson, The Life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, page 186
    • I had no particular woman in my mind; certainly never intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstraction; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether a fancy of my own.1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall
  2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
  3. (transitive) To expose to radiation.
    • Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, page 219

Noun (2)

ray (plural rays)

  1. Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.

Verb (2)

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

  1. (obsolete) To arrange.
  2. (archaic) To dress, array (someone).
  3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
    • From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun (3)

ray (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
    • spoyling all her geares and goodly ray1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50

Noun (4)

ray (plural rays)

  1. The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Ray

Ray

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
  2. A diminutive of the male given names Raymond, Rayane, and Rayan, also used as a formal given name.
    • -, or Raymond if it happened to be a boy, choosing it in the hope that a name like Ray would make a boy's life easier.1980, Wright Morris, Plains Song, for Female Voices, Harper&Row, →ISBN, page 113
    • Although the name on his birth certificate was spelled "Ray", Ray said he was originally given the name "Rae" after Rae Williams, a cousin on his father's side.2005, Sam Weller, The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow, →ISBN, page 12
  3. A diminutive of the female given name Rachel, more often spelled Rae.
    • 'Rachel told me―' 'Call her Ray. She hates Rachel.'2010, Sophie Hannah, A Room Swept White, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 271
  4. A census-designated place in Coosa County, Alabama.
  5. A ghost town in Pinal County, Arizona.
  6. An unincorporated community in Fremont Township, Steuben County, Indiana and Branch County, Michigan.
  7. A township in Macomb County, Michigan.
  8. An unincorporated community in Koochiching County, Minnesota.
  9. A minor city in Williams County, North Dakota.
  10. A river in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England, which joins the River Cherwell.
  11. A river in north Wiltshire, England, which joins the Thames.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ray

Ray

  1. A city near Tehran, Iran.
  2. (historical) A region and satrapy in ancient Iran located between the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges and the Dasht-e Kavir desert; Rhagiana.

Also used as

ray is also the alternative form of re.

ray meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ray in Hindi

beam of light or radiation
किरण kiraṇ, रश्मि raśmi

ray in Tamil

marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail
திருக்கை tirukkai

ray in Marathi

रे

ray in Urdu

beam of light or radiation
کرن kiran
mathematics: line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point
شعاع śuā
More languagesFewer languages
ray in Bengali
রশ্মি rośmi
ray in Telugu
కిరణము kiraṇamu, రేఖ rēkha, టెంకి ṭeṅki
ray in Malayalam
തിരണ്ടി tiraṇṭi
ray in Kannada
ತೊರಕೆ torake
ray in Punjabi
ਕਿਰਨ kiran
ray in Gujarati
રે
ray in Sanskrit
रश्मि raśmi
ray in Nepali
रे, रे गर्न, टु रे
ray in Pashto
شعاع šo'ã, پلوشه palwaša, څريکه críka
ray in Tagalog
ligos, sinag, pagi
ray in Arabic
شُعَاع šuʕāʕ, شِفْنِين šifnīn, شِفْنِين بَحْرِيّ šifnīn baḥriyy
ray in Malay
sinaran, sinar, menyinar, bersinar
ray in Indonesian
sinar, pari
ray in Persian
پرتو partow, فروغ foruġ, برازه barâze, نیمخط nim-xat
ray in Thai
แสง sɛ̌ɛng, รังสี rang-sǐi, กระเบน grà-been
ray in Vietnamese
tia, cá đuối
ray in Myanmar
အလင်းတန်း a.lang:tan:, ရောင်ခြည် raunghkrany, ခြည် hkrany, လိပ်ကျောက် lipkyauk
Dhivehi
މަޑި maḍi

Examples of ray in a sentence

  • The Earth, which I esteem unable to reflect the rays of the Sun.
  • Cabrera's Valentine's Day monopole detection or some extremely energetic cosmic rays could be examples of snarks.
  • The rays of the sun were extinguished by the thunder clouds.

All 40 example sentences with ray

Synonyms of ray

Forms of ray

Noun
pluralrays
Verb
third-person singular presentrays
present participleraying
past participlerayed
pastrayed
Proper noun
alternative formRey
alternative formRai
alternative formRhay
alternative formRhey
alternative formShahr-e-Rey
alternative formShahr-e-Ray
alternative formShahr Rey
alternative formShahr Ray

Plural of ray: rays

Origin of ray

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

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”).

Shortened from array.

Words formed from ray

Phrases with ray

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ray

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ray

What does ray mean?
Ray means a beam of light or radiation.
What is ray in Hindi?
Ray in Hindi is किरण (kiraṇ), रश्मि (raśmi). See Ray meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ray?
Ray can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ray?
Ray is pronounced /ɹeɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of ray?
The plural of ray is rays.

Words near ray in the dictionary

  1. raxes
  2. raxibacumab
  3. raxing
  4. raxle
  5. raxofelast
  6. ray
  7. ray casting
  8. Ray County
  9. ray floret
  10. ray florets
  11. ray grass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ray (page history and authors); Ray (page history and authors); ray (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ray (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ray (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.

Last updated:

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

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