rai
/ɹaɪ/noun
rai is a noun meaning “stone money” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-I and has 2 syllables, and it appears 1.8 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does rai mean?
noun
- 1
stone money
- 2
A unit of area used in Thailand that is equal, in modern times, to 1,600 square metres (16 ares, 0.16 hectares, 0.3954 acres).
- 3
Alternative spelling of raï (“musical style”).
noun
- 1
A form of music, originating in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds.
Rai arrives in the US, in some ways, as the latest rage to hit the World Music record bins, the result of a new post-modern global marketing strategy.
noun
- 1
An ancient indigenous ethnolinguistic group of Nepal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce rai?
- /ɹaɪ/
- /ɹʌiː/
Rai has 2 syllables (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).
How common is rai?
Rai appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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).
Where does rai come from?
Borrowed from Yapese raay.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).