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• moray
  moray

  noun

  any of numerous chiefly tropical eels of the family Muraenidae, having porelike gill openings and no pectoral fins.
• Moray
  Moray

  noun

  a historic county in NE Scotland, on Moray Firth.

moray

¹ American  

[mawr-ay, mohr-ay, maw-ray, moh-] / ˈmɔr eɪ, ˈmoʊr eɪ, mɔˈreɪ, moʊ- /

noun

• morays
  plural

1. any of numerous chiefly tropical eels of the family Muraenidae, having porelike gill openings and no pectoral fins.

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Moray ² American  

[mur-ee] / ˈmɜr i /

noun

1. a historic county in NE Scotland, on Moray Firth.

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Moray ¹ British  

/ ˈmʌrɪ /

noun

1. Former name: Elgin. a council area and historical county of NE Scotland: part of Grampian region from 1975 to 1996: mainly hilly, with the Cairngorm mountains in the S. Administrative centre: Elgin. Pop: 87 460 (2003 est). Area: 2238 sq km (874 sq miles)

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Moray ² British  

/ ˈmʌrɪ /

noun

1. 1st Earl of, title of James Stuart. ?1531–70, regent of Scotland (1567–70) following the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, his half-sister. He defeated Mary and Bothwell at Langside (1568); assassinated by a follower of Mary

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moray ³ British  

/ mɒˈreɪ /

noun

1. any voracious marine coastal eel of the family Muraenidae, esp Muraena helena, marked with brilliant patterns and colours

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• morays
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of moray

1615–25, < Portuguese moréia < Latin mūraena < Greek mȳ́raina lamprey

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

moray Moray morays

After weeks of patience, last year's winner, Shane Gross, captured peppered moray eels scavenging for carrion at low tide.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025

A dead moray eel washed ashore near Laguna Niguel over the weekend, creeping out beachgoers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024

Scientists exploring underwater caves have discovered a new species of moray eel that appears to be adapting to its unique habitat—by losing its eyes.

From Science Magazine ● May 18, 2023

A green moray eel poked out of the rocks, and a barracuda hunted overhead.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022

Some time later, I made an informed guess that it had been a large moray eel.

From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor

To cope with the funding shortfalls, every local authority in Scotland has increased council tax - ranging from 4% in Edinburgh to 10% in Aberdeenshire and Moray.

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026

Moray representative Laura Mitchell was among those to use a prop during the ceremony.

From BBC ● May 14, 2026

Last week the overnight temperature in Tomintoul, Moray, fell to -6.8C.

From BBC ● May 11, 2026

Holland and Matt Damon were also spotted in Burghead in Moray from where they were taken by boat to nearby Culbin Sands for scenes.

From BBC ● May 1, 2026

Two species of these eels are found along the coast of the United States, the Spotted Moray in Florida and the Reticulated Moray off the coast of South Carolina.

From Fast Nine or, A Challenge from Fairfield by Alan Douglas

The researchers used baited traps to lure the morays to the surface of inland caves that connect to the ocean on Australia’s Christmas Island and the Philippines’s Panglao Island.

From Science Magazine ● May 18, 2023

We hope you can still manage a smile, even as our societal morays crumble.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2022

That, to me, is trying to impose contemporary morays onto history.

From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2020

More impressively, researchers in the Red Sea in 2002 and 2004 watched groupers and morays hunting cooperatively on numerous occasions.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 30, 2018

At that moment another man came up, evidently in something of a hurry, and he pressed eagerly forward to look at the morays.

From Two Boys of the Battleship or For the Honor of Uncle Sam by Frank V. Webster

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