Pronunciation Noun
ray (plural rays)
- A beam of light or radiation.
- I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
- (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
- (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
- (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.
- (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 )”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In Three Books, Dublin; London: Reprinted for A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756 ↗:
- (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
- (colloquial) A tiny amount.
- Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope.
- French: demi-droite
- German: Strahl, Halbgerade
- Italian: raggio, semiretta
- Portuguese: raio
- Russian: луч
- Spanish: semirrecta
ray (rays, present participle raying; past and past participle rayed)
- (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
- 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.
- (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
ray (plural rays)
A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.
ray (rays, present participle raying; past and past participle rayed)
- (obsolete) To arrange. [14th-18th c.]
- (now rare) To dress, array (someone). [from 14th c.]
- (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile. [16th-19th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.4:
- From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And form his face the filth that did it ray […] .
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.4:
ray (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
- And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray.
ray (plural rays)
- The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.
- ar, in Latin and the name of the other Pitman r
ray (plural rays)
- (music) Alternative form of re
Ray
Proper noun
- Surname from a Middle English nickname meaning a king or a roe.
- A male given name, also used as a formal given name.
- 1980 Wright Morris, Plains Song, for Female Voices, Harper&Row, ISBN 0060130474, page 113:
- -, or Raymond if it happened to be a boy, choosing it in the hope that a name like Ray would make a boy's life easier.
- 2005 Sam Weller, The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow, ISBN 006054581X, page 12
- Although the name on his birth certificate was spelled "Ray", Ray said he was originally given the name "Rae" after Rae Williams, a cousin on his father's side.
- 1980 Wright Morris, Plains Song, for Female Voices, Harper&Row, ISBN 0060130474, page 113:
- A female given name, more often spelled Rae.
- 2010 Sophie Hannah, A Room Swept White, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-0-340-98062-0, page 271:
- 'Rachel told me―' 'Call her Ray. She hates Rachel.'
- 2010 Sophie Hannah, A Room Swept White, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-0-340-98062-0, page 271:
- A city near Tehran, Iran.
- (historical) a region and satrapy in ancient Iran located between the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges and the Dasht-e Kavir desert; Rhagiana
- Arsacia
- Rhazes
- Rhagiana
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