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• ray
  ray

  noun

  a narrow beam of light.
• Ray
  Ray

  noun

  John, 1627?–1705, English naturalist.

ray

¹ American  

[rey] / 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  

[rey] / 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  

[rey, 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

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

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

Cosmic ray energies are measured in electron volts, a unit describing the energy an electron gains when its electrical potential increases by one volt.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 2, 2026

The JetZero aircraft looks more like a manta ray than the tube-with-wings blueprint that has been the default for over 70 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

"There wasn't a single ray of light coming through a crack in the rubble; despair threatened to overwhelm me," Cordido told AFP from his daughter's house in Caracas.

From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026

Writer and executive producer of the show Laura Wade said Dame Jilly was like a ray of "human sunshine", but had one memorable piece of criticism of the show.

From BBC ● May 25, 2026

In 1920, the memorably named Philo T. Farnsworth conceived the cathode ray vacuum tube used in most all twentieth-century TV sets.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

The drizzle cleared up as stars arrived at Guildhall, with Vinnie Jones, Kaya Scodelario, Joely Richardson and Ray Winstone all in attendance.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

The last time a new “GTA” came out, Ray was a teenager.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Ray Garland was already on the USS Tennessee, moored at Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row, when the Japanese attacked.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

The Padres acquired Robbie Ray and Casey Mize at the trade deadline to bolster a patchwork rotation, and they retained Miller and Adrian Morejon rather than break up a mighty bullpen.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

Then Ray brings out plates and silverware and glasses of lemonade.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

"There are rays of hope, especially for the crisis-stricken industry sector," he said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

The darker streaks contain surface dust and rocks that have been altered over long periods by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and impacts from micrometeorites.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

Expedition leader Josy Cardoso expects the new boat to bring travelers closer to rays, and to let them linger with the animals longer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Peter Smith, from Taunton, viewed the solar eclipse 27 years ago wearing a borrowed welder's mask having thought it would provide protection from the sun's rays.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

An oracle told him, however, that he would be able to see again if he went to the east and let the rays of the rising sun fall on his eyes.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

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

But it was not afraid, Potch's opal; it fluttered with delight in the hand of this old man, who was a devout lover, and rayed itself like a bird of paradise.

From The Black Opal by Katharine Susannah Prichard

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

A garish appeal, no doubt: a few raying spokes of colour, and the vision has gone.

From From a Cornish Window A New Edition by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of God raying out for ever to us inferior creatures, who, by reason of our sinfulness, have deserved something widely different.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) by Alexander Maclaren

The Mercutians were pounding along methodically raying in front of them.

From Slaves of Mercury by Nathan Schachner

Related Words

• glimmer
• light
• radiation