cay
Americannoun
-
cays
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cay
1700–10; < Spanish cayo; see key 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
From the point of view of the Philippines this, and the fact that Pagasa is solid land, not a partially submerged reef or sandy cay, strengthens its legal claims in the area.
From BBC ● May 20, 2025
One person from the missing vessel spent 30 hours in the water before also being washed ashore at Bedwell Island, a small sandy cay within the Clarke Reef coral atoll.
From Reuters ● Apr. 19, 2023
And rising sea levels and storm surges led to the recent extinction of a rodent species called Bramble Cay melomys, which lived on a remote cay in the northern Great Barrier Reef, the report said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2022
It comes three years after a more detailed declaration by the state government of Queensland, which itself followed an exhaustive search of the cay seeking any evidence of the species’ existence.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 21, 2019
Otherwise, how could they have lived with water lapping over the entire cay?
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
Staniel Cay is in the Exumas, an archipelago of hundreds of cays and islands in the outer Bahamas, beginning about thirty-five miles southeast of Nassau.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2023
Nicaraguan soldiers began preparing the evacuation of inhabitants of islands and cays around the town of Sandy Bay Sirpi.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 8, 2022
The reef’s unrivalled size and diversity – almost 4,000 reefs, cays and islands stretching for more than 2,000 kilometres – gives it extra resilience, he says.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 4, 2020
The Exumas — a north-south string of some 365 sand-fringed cays between Nassau and Long Island — were largely spared.
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2019
“But you said you knew about the banks and die cays that are near the banks.”
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
