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PlainSpell

ray

/ɹeɪ/noun, verb

ray is spelled R-A-Y: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ray means “A beam of light or radiation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ray is rays or γ-rays.

How many letters and syllables are in ray?

Letters3: R-A-Y
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing49 times per million words; the 2,072nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
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 ray?

Ray appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd 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 ray?

  • US /ɹeɪ/

Ray 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: En-us-ray.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with ray

Sounds like: Wray (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: re.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with ray?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ray from its last stressed vowel (/eɪ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ayr, ary, yar, rya.

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 ray

  • rays plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • raying participle, present
  • rayed participle, past
  • γ-rays plural
  • γ rays plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ray mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A beam of light or radiation.

    I saw a ray of light through the clouds.

  2. 2

    A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.

  3. 3

    One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.

  4. 4

    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. 5

    obsoleteSight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.

  6. 6

    A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.

  7. 7

    Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.

  8. 8

    The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

  9. 9

    obsoleteArray; order; arrangement; dress.

  10. 10

    Alternative form of re.

verb

  1. 1

    To emit something as if in rays.

  2. 2

    To radiate as if in rays.

  3. 3

    To expose to radiation.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo arrange.

  5. 5

    archaicTo dress, array (someone).

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo stain or soil; to defile.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ray in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrayon (beam of light or radiation), demi-droite (mathematics: line extending indefinitely in one…), raie (marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like…)
GermanStrahl (beam of light or radiation), Halbgerade (mathematics: line extending indefinitely in one…), Rochen (marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like…)
Portugueseraio (beam of light or radiation), arraia, raia (marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like…)
Spanishrayo (beam of light or radiation), semirrecta (mathematics: line extending indefinitely in one…), raya (marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like…)

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 ray come from?

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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ray