Word.ws English Dictionary

sunbeams

sunbeams is the plural of sunbeam.

Meaning of sunbeam

Noun

sunbeam (plural sunbeams)

  1. A ray of sunlight; especially, a demarcated, narrow, and intense (relative to ambient light) ray of sunlight (as revealed by, for example, its diffraction among dust particles).
    • Near-synonym: sunshaft (narrow, demarcated)
    Synonyms:
    sunshaft
  2. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Curetis.
  3. Any hummingbird of the genus Aglaeactis.
  4. (UK) Synonym of sunshine (“ironic form of address to an inferior or troublemaker”).
    • DOCTOR: You seem to be our best bet so far, don't you think so, Mel? Mel? Where's Mel?
      DEPUTY: No, no, no, sunbeam. You're coming with us.1987, Doctor Who (TV series), Paradise Towers (aired 5 October)
  5. (Australia, colloquial, dated) An item of cutlery or crockery laid out on a table, but not used, and which can be returned to the drawer without being washed.

See all 8 meanings of sunbeam

Questions about sunbeams

What is sunbeams the plural of?
Sunbeams is the plural of sunbeam.

Words near sunbeams in the dictionary

  1. sunbathing
  2. sunbaths
  3. sunbeam
  4. sunbeam snake
  5. sunbeam snakes
  6. sunbeams
  7. sunbeamy
  8. sunbeat
  9. sunbeaten
  10. sunbed
  11. sunbeds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sunbeams (page history and authors); sunbeam (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “sunbeams.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sunbeams. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.