# spray

> English word · Noun · IPA /spɹeɪ/ · frequency rank #5,368

## Definitions
1. A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid.
2. Something resembling a spray of liquid.
3. A pressurized container; an atomizer.
4. Any of numerous commercial products, including paints, cosmetics, and insecticides, that are dispensed from containers in this manner.
5. A jet of fine medicated vapour, used either as an application to a diseased part or to charge the air of a room with a disinfectant or a deodorizer.
6. A side channel or branch of the runner of a flask, made to distribute the metal to all parts of the mold.
7. A group of castings made in the same mold and connected by sprues formed in the runner and its branches.
8. The allocation and filling of blocks of memory with the same byte sequence, hoping to establish that sequence in a certain predetermined location as part of an exploit.
9. A loud scolding or reprimand, usually delivered by a sports coach or similar figure.

## Etymology
From Middle Dutch sprāien, sprayen, spraeyen (“to spray, sprinkle, spread”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sprēwijaną (“to spray, sprinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to sow, scatter”).
Cognate with Middle High German spræjen, spræwen (“to squirt, spray, dust, splash, straw”), Danish dialectal språe (“to open up, burst forth”), Swedish dialectal språ (“to sprout, shoot forth, burst”), Norwegian dialectal spra, spræ (“to splash, splatter, spout, burst forth”), Dutch sproeien (“to spray, sprinkle”), German sprühen (“to spray, sparkle”).

## Easily confused with
- **spy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-spy)
- **sry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sry)
- **stay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-stay)
- **sway** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sway)
- **sura** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sura)
- **straw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-straw)
- **strap** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-strap)
- **stray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-stray)
- **spree** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-spree)
- **supra** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-supra)
- **strat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-strat)
- **surly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-surly)
- **surry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-surry)
- **spread** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-spread)
- **sprays** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sprays)
- **sprayed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sprayed)
- **sprayer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spray-vs-sprayer)
- **say** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/say-vs-spray)
- **spa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spa-vs-spray)
- **SPR** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spr-vs-spray)

## Common misspellings (8)
`psray`, `spary`, `sppray`, `sprayy`, `sprray`, `sprya`, `srpay`, `sspray`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/spray