dray
/dɹeɪ/noun, verb
dray is spelled D-R-A-Y: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dray means “Any of various forms of low horse-drawn cart or wagon, often without sides or with removable sides, and used especially for heavy loads” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dray is drays.
How many letters and syllables are in dray?
| Letters | 4: D-R-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 56,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dray?
Dray appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dray?
- /dɹeɪ/
Dray has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dray.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with dray?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dray.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: yard.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of dray
- drays plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- draying participle, present
- drayed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dray mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of various forms of low horse-drawn cart or wagon, often without sides or with removable sides, and used especially for heavy loads.
- 2
A kind of sledge or sled.
- 3
Alternative spelling of drey (“squirrel's nest”).
- 4
rareA group of squirrels.
verb
- 1
To convey (goods) by dray.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dray in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense horse-drawn cart:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dray come from?
From Middle English draye, dreye, from Old English dræġe (“dragnet”), from Proto-Germanic *dragǭ. Cognate with Middle Low German drāge (“stretcher; dray”), Middle High German trage (“a litter”). Related to Old English dragan (“to pull; draw”). More at draw.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).