Jump To:

• 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-ey, mohr-ey, maw-rey, 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.

---

Moray ² American  

[mur-ee] / ˈmɜr i /

noun

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

---

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)

---

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

---

moray ³ British  

/ mɒˈreɪ /

noun

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• morays
  plural

Etymology

Origin of moray

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

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

The moray eel has a double row of pointed teeth that angle backward, so once it bites something, its prey have a really hard time escaping, he added.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024

The fish are the first known species of moray to inhabit these formations, known as anchialine caves.

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

In a panic he twisted the throttle and the johnboat picked up speed, but that didn’t help—Jasper Jr. was stuck on the end of my line like a moray eel.

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen

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

Mary and her husband David moved away from their beloved home in Tomintoul, Moray, in 2023.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026

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

From BBC ● May 14, 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

From the Moray Firth it extends inland in a westerly and then south-westerly direction for a distance of 19 m.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 7 "Crocoite" to "Cuba" by Various

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

The morays wouldn't attack unless disturbed, and there was no reason for disturbing them.

From The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin