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• ray
  ray

  noun

  a narrow beam of light.
• Ray
  Ray

  noun

  John, 1627?–1705, English naturalist.

ray

¹ American  

[ray] / reɪ /

noun

1. a narrow beam of light.

2. a gleam or slight manifestation.

   a ray of hope.

3. a raylike line or stretch of something.

4. light or radiance.

5. a line of sight.

6. Physics, Optics.

   1. any of the lines or streams in which light appears to radiate from a luminous body.

   2. the straight line normal to the wave front in the propagation of radiant energy.

   3. a stream of material particles all moving in the same straight line.

7. Mathematics.

   1. one of a system of straight lines emanating from a point.

   2. Also called half-line. the part of a straight line considered as originating at a point on the line and as extending in one direction from that point.

8. any of a system of parts radially arranged.

9. Zoology.

   1. one of the branches or arms of a starfish or other radiate animal.

   2. one of the bony or cartilaginous rods in the fin of a fish.

10. Botany.

    1. ray flower.

    2. one of the branches of an umbel.

    3. vascular ray.

    4. (in certain composite plants) the marginal part of the flower head.

11. Astronomy. one of many long, bright streaks radiating from some of the large lunar craters.

12. a prominent upright projection from the circlet of a crown or coronet, having a pointed or ornamented termination.

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verb (used without object)

• rays,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rayed,
  past participle,  past
• raying
  present participle

1. to emit rays.

2. to issue in rays.

verb (used with object)

• rays,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rayed,
  past participle,  past
• raying
  present participle

1. to send forth in rays.

2. to throw rays upon; irradiate.

3. to subject to the action of rays, as in radiotherapy.

4. Informal. to make a radiograph of; x-ray.

5. to furnish with rays or radiating lines.

idioms

1. get / grab some rays, to relax in the sun, especially to sunbathe.

ray ² American  

[ray] / reɪ /

noun

1. any of numerous elasmobranch fishes, adapted for life on the sea bottom, having a flattened body and greatly enlarged pectoral fins with the gills on the undersides.

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Ray ³ American  

[ray, rahy] / reɪ, raɪ /

noun

1. John, 1627?–1705, English naturalist.

2. Man 1890–1976, U.S. painter and photographer.

3. Satyajit 1921–92, Indian film director.

4. Cape, a promontory at the SW extremity of Newfoundland, Canada, on the Cabot Strait, at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

5. a male given name, form of Raymond.

6. Also Raye a female given name, form of Rachel.

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ray ¹ British  

/ reɪ /

noun

1. a narrow beam of light; gleam

2. a slight indication, esp of something anticipated or hoped for

   a ray of solace

3. maths a straight line extending from a point

4. a thin beam of electromagnetic radiation or particles

5. any of the bony or cartilaginous spines of the fin of a fish that form the support for the soft part of the fin

6. any of the arms or branches of a starfish or other radiate animal

7. astronomy any of a number of bright streaks that radiate from the youngest lunar craters, such as Tycho; they are composed of crater ejecta not yet darkened, and extend considerable distances

8. botany any strand of tissue that runs radially through the vascular tissue of some higher plants See medullary ray

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verb

1. (of an object) to emit (light) in rays or (of light) to issue in the form of rays

2. (intr) (of lines, etc) to extend in rays or on radiating paths

3. (tr) to adorn (an ornament, etc) with rays or radiating lines

ray ² British  

/ reɪ /

noun

1. any of various marine selachian fishes typically having a flattened body, greatly enlarged winglike pectoral fins, gills on the undersurface of the fins, and a long whiplike tail. They constitute the orders Torpediniformes ( electric rays ) and Rajiformes

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Ray ³ British  

/ reɪ /

noun

1. John . 1627–1705, English naturalist. He originated natural botanical classification and the division of flowering plants into monocotyledons and dicotyledons

2. Man , real name Emmanuel Rudnitsky . 1890–1976, US surrealist photographer

3. Satyajit (ˈsætjədʒɪt). 1921–92, Indian film director, noted for his Apu trilogy (1955–59)

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ray ⁴ British  

/ reɪ /

noun

1. music (in tonic sol-fa) the second degree of any major scale; supertonic

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Ray ⁵ British  

/ reɪ /

noun

1. a promontory in SW Newfoundland, Canada

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ray Scientific  

/ rā /

1. A thin line or narrow beam of light or other radiation.

2. A geometric figure consisting of the part of a line that is on one side of a point on the line.

3. See ray flower

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Synonym Usage

See gleam.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• raylike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• raying
  present
• rayed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ray
  simple
• rays
  simple
• have rayed
  perfect
• has rayed
  perfect
• am raying
  progressive
• are raying
  progressive
• is raying
  progressive
• have been raying
  perfect progressive
• has been raying
  perfect progressive

Past

• rayed
  simple
• had rayed
  perfect
• was raying
  progressive
• were raying
  progressive
• had been raying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ray
  simple
• will have rayed
  perfect
• will be raying
  progressive
• will have been raying
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of ray¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English rai, raie, raye, from Old French rai “beam of light; spoke of a wheel,” from Latin radius radius

Origin of ray²

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English rai(e), raye, (from Old French rai ) or directly from Latin raia

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Explanation

A ray is a beam of light or radiation. Even on cloudy days, you sometimes see a ray of sunlight shine through the clouds. In physics, a ray is a line or column of light, heat, or electromagnetic radiation (like an x-ray), while in math a ray is a line that passes through a specific point. A marine biologist would define a ray as a big fish that's related to sharks and has a wide, flat body and a long tail. The root of the first two kinds of rays is the Latin word radius, "spoke" or "staff."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ray Ray rays rayed raying

The contrast is somewhat similar to the difference between an MRI, which can emphasize soft tissues such as muscle, and an X ray, which is especially useful for viewing dense structures such as bone.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026

She’s a ray of light; he’s magnetically mature.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026

Two hydropower workers were pulled alive on Friday from a tunnel buried by debris in Nepal, a rare ray of hope on the tenth day of rescue efforts after catastrophic Himalayan flooding.

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

Dean has fared far better fronting her own band, a ray of sunshine singing retro soul and pop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

He holds it up as if to inspect it, the shard glimmering in a ray of light...and that’s when I notice what he already has.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Ray Rios, president of the Hillside Homeowners Assn. in El Sereno, wants to see more from Gomez when it comes to federal funding for the district.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

"The National Hurricane Center has made a number of thoughtful changes to improve how hurricane information is communicated," said Assistant Professor Elizabeth Ray, the study's lead author.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2026

Hafeez referenced the six-stage framework on debt and world order put forward by Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge-fund giant Bridgewater Associates.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

Plus, Ray A. Smith on the ‘Sunday scaries.’

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Even Governor Dixy Lee Ray hadn’t been concerned when she first heard about the eruption.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Among the diverse habitats are a salt marsh that serves as a nursery for leopard sharks and bat rays and kelp forests frequented by harbor seals and wrasses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026

Once in orbit, the chip will have to survive being bombarded by cosmic rays and solar events.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

One stunning shot follows the group from behind as they are silhouetted by the setting sun whose fading rays show off the clouds’ contours.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Because lead absorbs far more X rays, letters appeared as bright marks against the darker carbonized material, similar to brighter regions on an underexposed black and white negative.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

The way the branches bend overhead and bright sunlight turns to pinpoint rays of light.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

The initiative seeks to restore the rayed bean mussel, which has not been found in Kentucky waters in more than 40 years.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 15, 2020

Some of the brighter craters are rayed, like Tycho and Copernicus on the Moon, and many have central peaks.

From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016

For a reciprocal test, we used the same H. melpomene races as the ingroup to compare with rayed Heliconius timareta florencia at the B/D region.

From Nature ● Jul. 4, 2012

Instead, our results imply that derived colour-pattern elements have introgressed recently between both rayed and postman forms of and .

From Nature ● Jul. 4, 2012

The standing eagle of the 1807 mint design with Federal shield, the panoply of arms and colors, and the rayed background all suggest that this plate was made not later than the early 1820's.

From American Military Insignia 1800-1851 by J. Duncan Campbell

Ever since Colonel Lindbergh flew one across the Atlantic in 1927, most U. S. aeronautical engineers have been developing air-cooled, radial engines with cylinders raying out like huge wheel-spokes around a short, chunky crankshaft.

From Time Magazine Archive

She was looking around the hem to see if the quilt maker had stitched in her initials, but the edges were all raying away.

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck

The machine buzzed the smoke once, too high for the Apaches to trust raying its blades.

From The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton

There is a pale bit of moon towards morning, then faint streaks raying up in the east, and sounds of life once more.

From Floyd Grandon's Honor by Amanda Minnie Douglas

In the picture of "Progress," which he loved, there was a glow, a glory of light, raying out to a far horizon.

From Bella Donna A Novel by Robert Smythe Hichens

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Related Words

• glimmer
• light
• radiation

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