English
ray
see also: Ray
Pronunciation 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 )”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In Three Books, Dublin; London: Reprinted for A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756 ↗:
  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.
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Hoffnungsstrahl (ray of hope)
  • Italian: raggio
  • Portuguese: pingo, fio
Verb

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

  1. (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.
  2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
Noun

ray (plural rays)

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

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

  1. (obsolete) To arrange. [14th-18th c.]
  2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone). [from 14th c.]
  3. (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 […] .
Noun

ray (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
    • And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray.
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
Noun

ray (plural rays)

  1. (music) Alternative form of re
Ray
Proper noun
  1. Surname from a Middle English nickname meaning a king or a roe.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.'
Proper noun
  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
Synonyms
  • Arsacia
Related terms

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