sunray

noun

"sunray" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sunray” is uncommon English (frequency #93,203 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,203
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A beam of sunlight; a sunbeam.

Key facts for sunray
PropertyValue
Headwordsunray
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#93,203
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “sunray” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). sunray lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sunray is uncommon English at frequency #93,203 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sunray, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From sun + ray. The correct English form is sunray, spelled S-U-N-R-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A beam of sunlight; a sunbeam.
  2. 2
    A beam of artificial light, especially one rich in ultraviolet.
  3. 3
    A plant, Enceliopsis nudicaulis, that has a broad, yellow flower head.
  4. 4
    Any of various Australian plants of the genus Rhodanthe.

Etymology

From sun + ray.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sunray"?
"sunray" is spelled S-U-N-R-A-Y.
What does "sunray" mean?
As a noun, "sunray" means: A beam of sunlight; a sunbeam.
What is the origin of the word "sunray"?
From sun + ray. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “sunray”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-U-N-R-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list