ray

English

English Wikipedia has articles on:

ray and ray (fish)

Wikipedia Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: rā, IPA^(key): /ɹeɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. A beam of light or radiation.

   I saw a ray of light through the clouds.

2. (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
3. (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
4. (botany) A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
5. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. , Dublin, London: A. Dodd, →OCLC:

     All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.

6. (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
7. (colloquial) A tiny amount.

   Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
   • 1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall:

     I had no particular woman in my mind; certainly never intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstraction; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether a fancy of my own.

2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
3. (transitive) To expose to radiation.
   • 1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, page 219:

     Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English raye, rayȝe, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, reȝge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).

Noun

ray (plural rays)

2. A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Shortened from array.

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (obsolete) To arrange.
2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone).
3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […] .

Noun

ray (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:

     spoyling all her geares and goodly ray

Etymology 4

From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• ar, in Latin and the name of the other Pitman r

Etymology 5

Alternative forms.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. (music) Alternative form of re

Anagrams

• -ary, Ary, Ayr, RYA, ary, ayr, rya, yar

Ainu

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɾaj/

Verb

ray (Kana spelling ラィ)

1. (intransitive) to die

Derived terms

• rayke (“to kill”)

Bikol Central

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɾaj/,

Noun

ráy (Basahan spelling ᜍᜌ᜔)

1. Alternative form of rahay

Buhi'non Bikol

Noun

ray

1. good

Derived terms

Northern Kurdish

Etymology

From Arabic رَأْي (raʔy).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɑːj/

Noun

ray ?

1. opinion

Turkish

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish رای, from French rail.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ray (definite accusative rayı, plural raylar)

1. rail

Declension

References

• Avery, Robert et al., editors (2013), The Redhouse Dictionary Turkish/Ottoman English, 21st edition, Istanbul: Sev Yayıncılık, →ISBN