ray

RAY/ɹeɪ/

Pluralrays

16 meanings of ray

1
beam of radiationnouncountable
A narrow beam of light or other radiation traveling out from a source.
A single ray of light pierced the dark cave.
Ultraviolet rays from the sun can damage skin over time.
UsageOften a ray of light or sunlight; for the sun, usually plural: the sun's rays.
Similarbeam, shaft, streak
Note
Behind this sense stands Latin radius, a staff, stake or spoke. The spoke is the useful picture: a ray leaves its source in a straight line, one of many. Eric Rücker Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922) shows the plural at work in "the low red rays of morning."
2
flat fishnouncountable
Any of various flat-bodied fish of the superorder Batoidea, mostly marine, with large wing-like fins and often a whip-like tail.
The diver watched a ray bury itself in the sand to hide.
A manta ray glided past the divers, its wide fins rising and falling like slow wings.
Note
An unrelated word that happens to share the spelling. Nothing links it to the beam of light. The wide, wing-like spread of the fins only makes the coincidence look meaningful.
3
hint of hopenouncountable
A slight sign or trace of something welcome, such as hope or comfort, often in the middle of hardship.
The rescue of two more miners offered the first ray of hope in days.
Amid weeks of grim economic news, the jobs report provided a rare ray of optimism.
UsageUsually a ray of + something welcome: a ray of hope, comfort or optimism; often with offer, bring or provide.
Similarglimmer, flicker, gleam, spark
Note
The figurative side of the beam of light: one thin shaft breaking into darkness, which is why the phrase belongs to hard times. Hope is the most familiar, and a visit can be a ray of sunshine. The welcome is usual but not required: Hewlett's Little Novels of Italy (1899) has 'nor any ray of doubt'.
4
geometry linenouncountable
A straight line that begins at a fixed point and extends infinitely in one direction.
A ray has one endpoint and continues without end in the other direction.
The two rays meet at the vertex of the angle.
Note
Geometry gives the word its strictest shape: a starting point and no end. That places it between the line, which runs on in both directions, and the segment, which stops at both ends. Rays are also the raw material of angles, two of them sharing one endpoint. A beam of light is a fair mental picture, as long as the beam never fades.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
A geometric ray has one endpoint and extends infinitely in one direction. math.libretexts.org
A geometric line extends infinitely in both directions. math.libretexts.org
A line segment is bounded at both ends. en.wikipedia.org
Two rays sharing an endpoint form an angle. en.wikipedia.org
5
flower partnouncountable
A radiating part of a flower, especially one of the outer florets around the edge of a composite flower such as a daisy or sunflower.
A ray at the edge of the flower head is actually a separate floret.
The bright rays of an aster help attract pollinating insects.
Note
Botany borrows the spoke image twice. In asters and sunflowers the rays are the marginal florets, each a small flower in its own right. In an umbel, the rays are the stalks that radiate from one point, each ending in a flower or, in a compound umbel, in a smaller umbel. Botanists sometimes call such a stalk a radius, the Latin word the English one descends from.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Asters have marginal ray florets. plants.ces.ncsu.edu
Sunflower ray florets are individual flowers. mdc.mo.gov
This describes a simple umbel. In a compound umbel, primary rays bear smaller umbels, whose pedicels bear the individual flowers. w3.biosci.utexas.edu
Radius is a botanical term for an umbel branch. mobot.org
English ray descends from Latin radius through French. en.wiktionary.org
6
fin bonenouncountable
A rib-like rod of bone or cartilage that stiffens and supports a fish's fin.
A broken ray can make it hard for the fish to swim straight.
Biologists count the rays in each fin to tell species apart.
Note
In zoology the stiff rods that hold a fin open fan out from its base like spokes, the image inside Latin radius, the word's source. Watch for the pun waiting here. The flat-bodied fish is an unrelated word that only shares the spelling, so a ray's fins have rays of their own, and context has to tell the reader which is meant.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
Fin rays provide structural support. fessrg.ucsd.edu
Fin rays spread out like a fan. en.wikipedia.org
The fin-support word derives from Latin radius, which meant spoke. en.wiktionary.org
Rays are flat-bodied fish. en.wikipedia.org
Ray meaning the fish has a separate origin from ray meaning a fin support. en.wiktionary.org
A ray's fins themselves contain fin rays. sicb.org

Less common meanings

7
starfish armnouncountable
One of the radiating body sections of an echinoderm, especially an arm of a starfish or brittle star.
When a predator grabs one ray, the starfish may shed it and escape.
Brittle stars move by waving their slender rays across the seabed.
Similararm
Note
Here the word follows the body plan rather than the light. Zoologists grouped animals built around a center as radiates, and each repeated section of such a body, a spheromere, is a ray. In a starfish or a brittle star (an ophiuran) the rays are the arms, and zoologists use both words.
8
expose to radiationverbtransitive
To subject something to radiation.
Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.
1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Similarirradiate
Note
A laboratory and clinical use in which the gerund names the procedure itself. The Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of 1928 reports that "one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer." Read it as "exposing to rays": the subject is whoever or whatever does the treating, and the object is the tissue or thing being treated.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The quotation's wording matches the passage reproduced in Wiktionary. en.wiktionary.org
9
beam outverbtransitive or intransitive
To send out, or spread outward, in rays or beams.
From the central plaza, a dozen narrow streets ray out toward the old city walls.
When the sun broke through, light rayed out between the clouds over the bay.
UsageOften ray out from a center: streets ray out from the plaza. It can also take an object, the thing sent out.
Note
The verb can be used without an object (often with out) or take an object, the thing sent out: Browning, in an 1889 letter to Dr. Furnivall, pictures an orb raying color out of whiteness.
10
music notenoun
Alternative form of re.
She slid up from do to ray and held the note steady.
The choir moved from do to ray in perfect unison.
Note
A spelling that writes the solfège syllable as it sounds: re, the second note of the major scale, sung do, re, mi. The phonetic spelling has a practical edge. Written re also means regarding and is short for a rematch or reinsurance, while ray in a musical context usually means the note.
11
verbarchaic
To dress or clothe someone, especially in fine or formal garments.
UsageOften in the passive with in: rayed in velvet. In ordinary writing, dress or array is the safe choice.
12
nounobsolete
Sight or vision; based on an old theory that seeing involved something passing from the eye to the object.
All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
1728, [Alexander Pope], The Dunciad
Note
An obsolete sense built on a discarded science: the belief that sight streamed out of the eye toward whatever it looked at. Under that theory eyes really did send out rays, and Alexander Pope's The Dunciad (1728) uses the idea plainly: "All eyes direct their rays / On him." It belongs to the reading of older poetry. In modern writing it will be taken as a beam of light.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
The obsolete vision sense of ray derives from an old theory of sight. en.wiktionary.org
The historical theory held that eyes emitted rays toward objects. en.wikipedia.org
That theory has been superseded. en.wikipedia.org
Alexander Pope wrote The Dunciad, first published in 1728. en.wikipedia.org
The Dunciad contains the quoted words describing rays directed from eyes. en.wikisource.org
13
verbobsolete
To put into order; to arrange.
Note
A clipped form of array, and the origin shared by its obsolete siblings: drop the first syllable and array becomes ray. The verb carried array's sense of setting things or people in order. Anyone writing today should use array or arrange, because ray in this sense will simply be read as a beam of light.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Ray meaning arrange is a shortened form of array, with its first syllable removed. en.wiktionary.org
Related obsolete senses share this etymology, including the noun meaning order, arrangement, or dress. en.wiktionary.org
The obsolete verb ray meant to arrange. en.wiktionary.org
14
verbobsolete
To stain, soil, or make something dirty; to defile.
Note
A Spenserian survival rather than a living verb. In Book VI (1596) of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, someone wipes away tears "and from his face the filth that did it ray." The filth does the soiling and the face receives it. It shares its origin in array with its neighbors, yet its meaning has nothing to do with order or dress, so a modern reader should not guess at it from array.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
The poem first appeared in 1590. Book VI, which contains this quotation, first appeared in 1596; specify that book. en.wikipedia.org
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene and the quoted passage. gutenberg.org
The passage describes someone wiping away tears and soiling from a face; filth soils the face. gutenberg.org
Its meaning here is soiling, but Wiktionary groups it with the arrangement and dress senses under the same origin: shortened from array. en.wiktionary.org
15
nounobsoleteuncountable
Orderly arrangement or array; also fine clothing or dress.
spoyling all her geares and goodly ray
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Note
A noun carrying array's double meaning of order and fine clothing, clipped from array just as the "arrange" verb is. The Faerie Queene uses it in a simile of a ship wrecked on a rock, "spoyling all her geares and goodly ray," where goodly ray is the ship's fine array. It is uncountable, used the way attire or order is.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Ray and array have meanings involving orderly arrangement and clothing. en.wiktionary.org
The noun and the arrangement verb are shortened from array. en.wiktionary.org
The Faerie Queene contains the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
Goodly ray means fine dress in this passage. en.wiktionary.org
It is uncountable in Spenser's example, but historical countable uses exist: Mirror for Magistrates has the plural rayes meaning military ranks or arrays. gutenberg.org
16
noun
A character in Pitman shorthand, one of two strokes that represent the 'r' sound.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1, 3–9, 12

This word came through Middle English from Old French "rai," from Latin "radius" (meaning staff, stake, or spoke). It is a doublet of "radius."

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Ray came through Middle English from Old French rai, ultimately from Latin radius. en.wiktionary.org
Latin radius means staff, stake, or spoke. en.wiktionary.org
Ray and radius are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 2

This came from Middle English "raye" and Old French "raie," from Latin "raia," whose origin is uncertain. Compare Old English "reohhe" (ray).

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Ray (the fish) comes from Middle English raye. en.wiktionary.org
Middle English raye comes from Old French raie, from Latin raia. en.wiktionary.org
The further origin of Latin raia is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org
Old English reohhe meant ray and is a relevant comparison. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 11, 13–15

This word was shortened from "array."

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

Ray, in this sense, was shortened from array. en.wiktionary.org