ray

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“
I must say their ray is a gentlemenly sort of thing.

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Definitions (141)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. noun A thin line or narrow beam of light or other radiant energy.
  2. noun A graphic or other representation of such a line.
  3. noun Radiance; light.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (109)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (6)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (10)

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Examples (50)

  • "We don't think Blu-ray is the savior," said Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente to Bloomberg.
  • Also included on the Blu-ray is a collection of nine deleted scenes that run approximately twenty minutes total. —  DVD Times
  • With the dominance of Dolby Digital audio for formats from DVD to DTV to Blu-ray, and lack of AAC surround decoders in home theater receivers, many people consider AC-3 support essential for encoding. —  AfterDawn.com
  • Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the BD-Java-based "Trivia Blast Off" trivia track featuring on-screen facts about space travel and the NASA Space Program. —  High-Def Digest: All High-Def Disc News
  • If you have a high definition TV and want to exploit it to its best, Blu-ray is the way to go. —  Canada Free Press
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

beam ·  glow ·  radiance ·  gleam ·  sunlight ·  flash ·  light ·  sun ·  radiation ·  wave ·  spark ·  blaze

Used in the same contextWord Family

ray:   rays
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old French rai, from Latin radius.
  2. Middle English raye, from Old French raie, from Latin raia.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. from Middle English raye. from Old French ray, rai, raid, French rais, a spoke, ray, =Provencal rai, raig, rait, spoke, ray, =Spanish rayo, a spoke, ray, thunderbolt, right line, radius, radio, radius, = Portuguese raio, a spoke, ray, thunderbolt, radio, radius, = Italian razzo, a spoke, ray, beam, raggio, a ray, beam, radius, radio, ray; also in feminine, Old French raie, French raie, a line, stroke, = Provencal Spanish raya, a line, streak, stroke, limit, boundary (see ray); from Latin radius, a staff, rod, a beam or ray, etc.: see radius.
  2. from Old French raier, French rayer, mark with lines, streak, stripe, mark out, scratch, =Provencal raiar =Spanish rayar, form lines or strokes, streak, =Portuguese raiar, radiate, sparkle, =Italian raggiare, razzare, radiate, also Spanish Portuguese radiar =Italian radiare, radiate, sparkle; from Latin radiare, furnish with spokes or beams, radiate, shine forth, from radius, a staff, rod, spoke of a wheel, ray, etc.: see ray, n., and cf. radiate.
  3. from Middle English raye, from Old French raie, raye, French raie =Old Catalan raja =Spanish raya =Italian raja, razza (cf. Middle Latin ragadia), from Latin rāia, a ray; prob. orig. *ragia, akin to D. roch, rog =Low German ruche (later Low German roche), a roach, a ray, =Danish rokke, a ray, =Anglo-Saxon reohhe, reohche (glossed by Middle Latin fannus), Middle English rehʒe, rohʒe, a roach: see roach.
  4. from Middle English raye, ray, from Old French rei, rai, roi, array: see array, of which ray is in part an aphetic form.
  5. from Middle English rayen; from ray, n. Cf. array, v., of which ray is in part an aphetic form. In def. 2, the same verb used (as array also was used) in an ironical application; hence, in comp., beray.
  6. Early modern English also rey; from Middle English raye; prob. a particular application of ray, a stripe, line, etc.
  7. Cf. Middle High German reige, reie, rei, German reihen, reigen, a kind of dance.
  8. Origin obscure.
 

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