ray

• enPR: rā, IPA^(key): /ɹeɪ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

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

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.

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”).

ray (plural rays)

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

Shortened from array.

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple 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, “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

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

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

• IPA^(key): /ɾaj/

ray (Kana spelling ラィ)

1. (intransitive) to die

• rayke (“to kill”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɾaj/, [ˈɾaɪ̯]

ráy (Basahan spelling ᜍᜌ᜔)

1. Alternative form of rahay

ray

1. good

From Arabic رَأْي (raʔy).

• IPA^(key): /rɑːj/

ray ?

1. opinion

From Ottoman Turkish رای, from French rail.

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ray (definite accusative rayı, plural raylar)

1. rail

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