• enPR: rā, IPA: /ɹeɪ/

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius.

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.

• French: rayon
• German: Strahl
• Italian: raggio, filo
• Portuguese: raio
• Russian: луч
• Spanish: rayo

• French: demi-droite
• German: Strahl, Halbgerade
• Italian: raggio, semiretta
• Portuguese: raio
• Russian: луч
• Spanish: semirrecta

• German: Hoffnungsstrahl (ray of hope)
• Italian: raggio
• Portuguese: pingo, fio

ray (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.

From Middle English raye, rayȝe, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin.

ray (plural rays)

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

• French: raie
• German: Rochen
• Italian: razza
• Portuguese: arraia, raia
• Russian: скат
• Spanish: raya

Shortened from array.

ray (rays, present participle raying; simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (obsolete) To arrange. [14th]
2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone). [from 14th c.]
3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile. [16th]
   • 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 […] .

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

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

ray (plural rays)

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

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

Alternative forms.

ray (plural rays)

1. (music) Alternative form of re

• As an English surname, from pet forms derived from the root of Raymond.
• Also as an English surname, from Old French rei.
• Also as an English surname, from Old English rā.
• Also as an English surname, variant of Wray and Rye.
• As a Scottish Gaelic - surname, shortened from McRae.
• As a French - surname, from the verb raier.
• As a Polish - and Slovenian - surname, Americanized from Raj, from raj.
• As an Indian surname, variant of Rai.

1. Surname.
2. A male given name, also used as a formal given name.
3. A female given name, more often spelled Rae.
4. A number of places in USA:
   1. CDP in Coosa County, Alabama.
   2. A ghost town in Pinal County, Arizona.
   3. An unincorporated community in Fremont, Steuben County.
   4. A twp in Macomb County, Michigan.
   5. An unincorporated community in Koochiching County, Minnesota.
   6. A minor city in Williams County, North Dakota.
5. A river in Buckinghamshire, and.
6. A river in north Wiltshire.

From Persian ری, from Pahlavi -, from Old Persian 𐎼𐎥𐎠, a Median district.

1. A city near Tehran, Iran.
2. (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