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Rayleigh

American  
[rey-lee] / ˈreɪ li /

noun

  1. John William Strutt 3rd Baron, 1842–1919, English physicist: Nobel Prize 1904.


Rayleigh British  
/ ˈreɪlɪ /

noun

  1. Lord , title of John William Strutt , 1842–1919, British physicist. He discovered argon (1894) with Ramsay and made important contributions to the theory of sound, the theory of scattering of radiation, etc. Nobel prize for physics 1904

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Rayleigh Scientific  
/ rālē /
  1. British physicist whose investigation of the densities of gases led to his discovery (with Sir William Ramsay) of the noble gas argon in 1894. For this work he won the 1904 Nobel Prize for physics.


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.

"Our findings, based on Rayleigh and Hoyt framework, are consistent with existing generalized models, while offering new analytical clarity on the role of asymmetry in pointing errors," concludes Prof. Ata.

From Science Daily • Feb. 17, 2026

To model beam misalignment more realistically, they applied Rayleigh and Hoyt distributions.

From Science Daily • Feb. 17, 2026

This reddish appearance is the result of a phenomenon called "Rayleigh scattering" which also makes the sky blue and our sunsets red.

From BBC • Sep. 5, 2025

Mother and daughter Michelle Smith and Hayley Marchant, 55, from Rayleigh, Essex, are also among the shoppers.

From BBC • Nov. 25, 2022

The so-called Rayleigh-Jeans law, named after the physicists Lord Rayleigh and Sir James Jeans, worked fairly well.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

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