ray

Definition

A beam of light or radiation.

Etymology

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.

Example Sentences

• "I saw a ray of light through the clouds."
• "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."
• "All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze."