Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#ARRAYCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#ARRAY arrayen, from Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#ARRAY arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar LatinCategory:English terms derived from Vulgar Latin#ARRAY *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from FrankishCategory:English terms derived from Frankish#ARRAY *raid or *raidā (“preparation, order”) or GothicCategory:English terms derived from Gothic#ARRAY 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#ARRAY *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Compare Old English rād (“condition, stipulation”), Old High German antreitī (“order, rank”)Category:Old High German links with redundant target parameters#ARRAY. Doublet of readyCategory:English doublets#ARRAY.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈɹeɪ/Category:English 2-syllable words#ARRAYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ARRAY

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ARRAY
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /əˈɹæɪ/Category:English 2-syllable words#ARRAYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ARRAY
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈæɾej/, /əˈɾej/Category:English 2-syllable words#ARRAYCategory:English 2-syllable words#ARRAYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ARRAY
• Rhymes: -eɪCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪ#ARRAYCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪ/2 syllables#ARRAY

Noun

array (countable and uncountable, plural arrays)Category:English lemmas#ARRAYCategory:English nouns#ARRAYCategory:English uncountable nouns#ARRAYCategory:English countable nouns#ARRAYCategory:English countable nouns#ARRAYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ARRAYCategory:Pages with entries#ARRAYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#ARRAY

1. Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.
   • 2017, anonymous author, “Sovay”, in Roud # 7, Laws N21‎:

     Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book I, page 8:

     In this Remembrance Emily e’re day / Aroſe, and dreſs’d her ſelf in rich Array […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
   • 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474:

     The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 2002, David L. Thompson, “River of Memories -An Appalachian Boyhood”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 69:

     Upon leaving the center, I photographed the colorful array of petunias decorating the square in purple, pink, yellow, white, and magenta.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
   • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:

     But the chivalry of France was represented by as gallant an array of nobles and cavaliers as ever fought under the banner of the lilies

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 2007 July 25, Felicity Barringer, “California Utility Agrees to Buy Power Generated by Solar Array”, in The New York Times‎:

     SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 — Pacific Gas & Electric, Northern California’s major utility, is announcing a commitment on Wednesday to purchase 550 megawatts of solar power to be generated by troughlike arrays of mirrors spread over nine square miles in the Mojave Desert.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

4. Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.

   drawn up in battle arrayCategory:English terms with collocations#ARRAY

   • 1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:

     wedged together in the closest array

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:

     He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door. They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

5. A large collection.

   We offer a dazzling array of choices.Category:English terms with usage examples#ARRAY

   • 1814, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in The Corsair, a Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 64, lines 1218–1211:

     Again his waves in milder tints unfold / Their long array of sapphire and of gold, / Mixt with the shades of many a distant isle, / That frown—where gentler ocean seems to smile.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Mario Balotelli, in the headlines for accidentally setting his house ablaze with fireworks, put City on their way with goals either side of the interval as United struggled to contain the array of attacking talent in front of them.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

6. (mathematicsCategory:en:Mathematics#ARRAY) A matrix.
8. (programmingCategory:en:Programming#ARRAY) Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
9. (lawCategory:en:Law#ARRAY) A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
10. (militaryCategory:en:Military#ARRAY) A militia.
11. A group of hedgehogs.^[1]
12. A microarray.

Verb

array (third-person singular simple present arrays, present participle arraying, simple past and past participle arrayed)Category:English lemmas#ARRAYCategory:English verbs#ARRAYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ARRAYCategory:Pages with entries#ARRAYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#ARRAY

1. To clothe and ornament; to adorn or attire.

   Synonyms: don, dress, put on; see also Thesaurus:clothe, Thesaurus:decorate

   He was arrayed in his finest robes and jewels.Category:English terms with usage examples#ARRAY

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37, page 317:

     In a long purple pall, whose ſkirt with gold, / Was fretted all about, ſhe was arayd, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     However, hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.
   • 2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN:

     It is a noble ambition, and the forces arrayed against it are mighty.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

3. (lawCategory:en:Law#ARRAY) To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.
   • 1768, William Blackstone, “Of the Trial by Jury”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 359:

     Alſo, though there be no perſonal objection againſt the ſheriff, yet if he arrays the panel at the nomination, or under the direction of either party, this is good cauſe of challenge to the array.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ARRAY

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from EnglishCategory:Portuguese terms borrowed from English#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese terms derived from English#ARRAY array.

Noun

array m (plural arrays)Category:Portuguese lemmas#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese nouns#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese countable nouns#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese terms spelled with Y#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese entries with incorrect language header#ARRAYCategory:Portuguese masculine nouns#ARRAYCategory:Pages with entries#ARRAYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#ARRAY

1. (programmingCategory:pt:Programming#ARRAY) array (any of various data structures)

   Synonym: vetor