Meaning & use
sunray
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Meanings
nouncountable
A narrow line or shaft of light coming straight from the sun, often seen through a gap in clouds or leaves.
Grammar: Has a plural: a single sunray, several sunrays.
Patterns
- a sunray through something
- a sunray falls on something
A single sunray slipped between the curtains and landed on the sleeping cat.
The children pointed at the sunrays breaking through the storm clouds.
Dust floated in a sunray above the old wooden table.
nouncountable
One of the straight lines drawn radiating outward from a circle in a picture or design to represent the sun.
Grammar: Usually used in the plural when describing artwork: the sunrays on the flag.
Patterns
- sunrays on something
She painted the sun as a yellow circle with twelve sunrays around it.
The flag shows a face surrounded by wavy sunrays.
Word forms
| plural | sunrays |
|---|
Common combinations
- a golden sunray
- A golden sunray crossed the kitchen floor at dawn.
- a stray sunray
- One stray sunray lit up the dust on the shelf.
- sunrays filter through
- Sunrays filter through the leaves of the old oak.
- catch a sunray
- The crystal in the window catches every sunray in the morning.
- a sunray pierces the clouds
- At last a sunray pierced the clouds over the harbor.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sunbeam
- Sunbeam is the more usual word in everyday and edited writing, while sunray sounds slightly more technical or poetic.
- ray of sunshine
- This phrase often has a figurative sense of a cheerful person, whereas sunray usually stays literal.
- shaft of light
- A shaft of light is more general and need not come from the sun, and it stresses the narrow, solid look of the beam.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: sunray or sunrise?
sunray vs sunrise
A sunrise is the moment or time when the sun appears in the morning, while a sunray is a beam of light.
Practice
Which sentence uses sunray correctly?
Choose one answer.
A sunray is a single beam of light, so it can cross a floor. Options 2 and 3 need sunrise and sunshine, and option 4 needs sun cream or sunscreen.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sunray”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.