Ray Meaning
/ɹeɪ/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA beam of light or radiation.
nounA rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
Sentence Examples
There is not a ray of truth in it.
There was not a ray of hope before him.
A spectrum is formed by a ray of light passing through a prism.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sun's ____ came through the window and lit up the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A single ____ of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the cathedral's stained glass.
Word Origin & History
Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Strangely light and delicate was his frame and seeming, yet with a sense of slumbering power beneath, as the delicate peak of a snow mountain seen afar in the low red rays of morning."
— 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 5:
"All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze."
— 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
"I had no particular woman in my mind; certainly never intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstraction; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether a fancy of my own."
— 1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall:
"Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly."
— 1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, page 219:
"From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […]."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sun's ____ came through the window and lit up the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A single ____ of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the cathedral's stained glass.