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Dolphin vs Ray - What's the difference?

dolphin | ray |

As a noun dolphin

is a carnivorous aquatic mammal inhabiting mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, famed for its intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans or dolphin can be (nautical) a man-made semi submerged maritime structure, usually installed to provide a fixed structure for temporary mooring, to prevent ships from drifting to shallow water or to serve as base for navigational aids.

As a proper noun ray is

from a (etyl) nickname meaning a king or a roe.

dolphin

English

(wikipedia dolphin)

Etymology 1

(etyl) dolfin, from (etyl) daulphin, dalphin, daufin, from (etyl) "womb".

Noun

(en noun)
  • A carnivorous aquatic mammal inhabiting mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, famed for its intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.
  • A fish, the mahi-mahi or dorado, Coryphaena hippurus , with a dorsal fin that runs the length of the body, also known for iridescent coloration.
  • The dauphin, eldest son of the kings of France.
  • (historical) A mass of iron or lead hung from the yardarm, in readiness to be dropped through the deck and the hull of an enemy's vessel to sink it.
  • (nautical) A kind of wreath or strap of plaited cordage.
  • (nautical) A spar or buoy held by an anchor and furnished with a ring to which ships may fasten their cables.
  • A mooring post on a wharf or beach.
  • A permanent fender around a heavy boat just below the gunwale.
  • (military, obsolete) One of the handles above the trunnions by which a gun was lifted.
    • (Webster 1913)
    Synonyms
    *
    Derived terms
    (terms derived from dolphin) * Amazon River dolphin * Arabian common dolphin * Atlantic humpback dolphin * Atlantic spotted dolphin * Atlantic white-sided dolphin * Australian snubfin dolphin * bottlenose dolphin * Chilean dolphin * Commerson's dolphin * common dolphin * delphine * dolphin hugger * dolphinarium * dolphin-friendly * dusky dolphin * flog the dolphin * Fraser's dolphin * Ganges and Indus River dolphin * Heaviside's dolphin * Hector's dolphin * hourglass dolphin * humpback dolphin dolphin * Indian humpback dolphin * Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin * Irrawaddy dolphin * La Plata dolphin * long-beaked common dolphin * northern right whale dolphin * Pacific humpback dolphin * Pacific white-sided dolphin * Peale's dolphin * Risso's dolphin * rought-toothed dolphin * short-beaked common dolphin * southern right whale dolphin * spinner dolphin * striped dolphin * white-beaked dolphin * wholphin * Yangtze river dolphin

    See also

    * killer whale * pod * porpoise * sea lion * seal * whale

    Etymology 2

    From (duc d'Albe in French), who was the first to let build this type of structures in the Spanish Netherlands in the 16th century.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A man-made semi submerged maritime structure, usually installed to provide a fixed structure for temporary mooring, to prevent ships from drifting to shallow water or to serve as base for navigational aids.

    • ray

    English

    Etymology 1

    Via (etyl), from (etyl) rai, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A beam of light or radiation.
    • I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
  • (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
  • (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
  • (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.
  • (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
  • (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
  • (colloquial) A tiny amount.
    • Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope .
    Derived terms
    * death ray * gamma ray * manta ray * ray gun * stingray * X-ray

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To emit something as if in rays.
  • To radiate as if in rays
    • (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

    • Etymology 3

    Shortened from array.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To arrange.
  • (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
  • * 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 .

    Etymology 4

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

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The name of 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

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
  • * Spenser
    • And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray .

    Etymology 6

    Alternative forms.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music)

    • Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----