ray

1. 1.

   emit as rays

   “That tower rays a laser beam for miles across the sky”

   Broaderemit
2. 2.

   extend or spread outward from a center or focus or inward towards a center

   “spokes radiate from the hub of the wheel”

   “This plants radiate spines in all directions”

   Synonymsradiate

   Broaderrun
3. 3.

   expose to radiation

   “irradiate food”

   Synonymsirradiate

   Broaderprocess

   Narrowerbombard

Other forms of ray

plural

rays·

past tense

rayed·

present participle

raying·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ray

What does ray mean?

ray means "a column of light (as from a beacon)". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ray?

ray has 1 syllable: ray. In IPA it is /ˈɹeɪ/.

What is another word for ray?

Close synonyms include beam, beam of light, light beam, ray of light, shaft. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ray a common word?

ray is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with ray?

6 words rhyme with ray. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.