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ray
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Translingual
Etymology
Symbol
ray
See also
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: rā, IPA(key): /ɹeɪ/
Audio (General American): (file) - Homophones: Rae, Ray, re (one pronunciation), Re, Rea, Rhea (one pronunciation)
- Rhymes: -eɪ
Etymology 1
Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
Noun
ray (plural rays)
- A beam of light or radiation.
- I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
- 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 5:
- Strangely light and delicate was his frame and seeming, yet with a sense of slumbering power beneath, as the delicate peak of a snow mountain seen afar in the low red rays of morning.
- (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 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.
- (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
- alpha ray
- anticrepuscular ray
- Becquerel calorific ray
- Becquerel ray
- beray
- Blu-ray
- calorific ray
- catch some rays
- cosmic ray
- crepuscular ray
- distributed ray tracing
- eigenray
- extraordinary ray
- finray
- god ray
- grocery shrink ray
- Gurwitsch ray
- half-ray
- heat-ray
- hemiray
- Lenard ray
- lightray
- medullary ray
- meridional ray
- mitogenetic ray
- number ray
- outray
- raycaster
- ray casting
- ray floret
- rayful
- ray grass
- ray gun
- raying room
- rayless
- raylet
- raylike
- ray marching
- ray of hope
- ray of light
- ray of sunshine
- rayproof
- raytraced
- ray tracer
- ray tracing
- repulsor ray
- sailray
- starry ray
- sunray
- superray
- violet ray
- X-ray
Translations
beam of light or radiation
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reinforcing in a fish's fin
mathematics: line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point
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Verb
ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)
- (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.
- (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
- (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.
Translations
Etymology 2
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”).
Noun
ray (plural rays)
- Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.
Derived terms
Translations
marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail
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Etymology 3
Shortened from array.
Verb
ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple 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, “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 […] .
Noun
ray (uncountable)
- (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
Etymology 4
From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.
Noun
ray (plural rays)
- 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
Etymology 5
Alternative forms.
Noun
ray (plural rays)
See also
- ray-woon (etymologically unrelated)
Anagrams
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Ainu
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
Verb
ray (Kana spelling ラィ)
- (intransitive) to die
Derived terms
- rayke (“to kill”)
Bikol Central
Pronunciation
Noun
ráy (Basahan spelling ᜍᜌ᜔)
- alternative form of rahay
Buhi'non Bikol
Noun
ray
Derived terms
Northern Kurdish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ray ?
Turkish
Etymology
From Ottoman Turkish رای, from French rail.
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
ray (definite accusative rayı, plural raylar)
Declension
References
- Avery, Robert et al., editors (2013), The Redhouse Dictionary Turkish/Ottoman English, 21st edition, Istanbul: Sev Yayıncılık, →ISBN
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