different between ray vs sparkle

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?, IPA^(key): /?e?/
• Rhymes: -e?

Etymology 1

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

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. A beam of light or radiation.

   I saw a ray of light through the clouds.

2. (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
3. (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
4. (botany) A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
5. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
6. (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
7. (colloquial) A tiny amount.

   Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
   • 1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall

     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.

2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English raye, ray?e, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, re?ge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).

Noun

ray (plural rays)

2. A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

Translations

Etymology 3

Shortened from array.

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (obsolete) To arrange. [14th-18th c.]
2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone). [from 14th c.]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir T. More to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.4:

     From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And form his face the filth that did it ray […] .

Noun

ray (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.

Etymology 4

From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. The letter ?/?, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• ar, in Latin and the name of the other Pitman r

Etymology 5

Alternative forms.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. (music) Alternative form of re

Anagrams

• -ary, Ary, Ayr, RYA, ary, ayr, rya, yar

Ainu

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?aj/

Verb

ray (Kana spelling ??)

1. (intransitive) to die

Derived terms

• rayke (“to kill”)

Northern Kurdish

Etymology

From Arabic ?????? (ra?y).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??j/

Noun

ray ?

1. opinion

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French rail.

Noun

ray (definite accusative ray?, plural raylar)

1. rail

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sp??k?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?sp??k?l/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k?l
• Homophone: SPARQL

Etymology 1

From Middle English sparkel, sparkle, sparcle, equivalent to spark +? -le (diminutive suffix).

Noun

sparkle (countable and uncountable, plural sparkles)

1. A little spark; a scintillation.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     The shock was sufficiently strong to strike out some sparkles of his fiery temper.

2. Brilliance; luster.

3. Liveliness; vivacity.

4. The quality of being sparkling or fizzy; effervescence.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English sparklen, sperclen, equivalent to spark +? -le (frequentative verb). Cognate with Dutch sparkelen (“to sparkle”).

Alternative forms

• sparckle, sparcle (obsolete)

Verb

sparkle (third-person singular simple present sparkles, present participle sparkling, simple past and past participle sparkled)

1. (intransitive) To emit sparks; to throw off ignited or incandescent particles

2. (by extension) To shine as if throwing off sparks; to emit flashes of light; to scintillate; to twinkle

   • A Mantelet vp on his shulder hangynge
     Bretful of Rubies reede / as fyr sparklynge
3. (intransitive) To manifest itself by, or as if by, emitting sparks; to glisten; to flash.
4. (intransitive) To emit little bubbles, as certain kinds of liquors; to effervesce

5. (transitive) To emit in the form or likeness of sparks.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To disperse.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To scatter on or over.

Synonyms

• (glisten, flash): shine, glisten, scintillate, radiate, coruscate, glitter, twinkle

Derived terms

• asparkle
• sparkler
• sparkling water

Translations

References

• sparkle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• kerslap

Middle English

Noun

sparkle

1. Alternative form of sparkel