How to say "ray" in Japanese

• 光線こうせんJLPT N2approx.Common
  nounCovers 'ray (of light)' and 'beam': light as a physical line or shaft travelling through space. Typical contexts include sunlight streaming through a window, a beam cutting through darkness, and the rays of physics.
  このランプは強つよい光線こうせんを出だす。↗

  This lamp sends out a powerful beam.
• 光ひかりJLPT N4approx.Common
  nounThe general word for light itself — illumination, a gleam, a glow. Its 'ray' sense is loose: light as perceived, a gleam or shaft, as of moonlight, rather than the ray as a physical line.

When 'ray' means a physical line or beam of light, use 光線; 光 is the broader word for light itself — illumination, gleams — and covers 'ray' in that looser, general sense.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 光線こうせんray (of light)
• えいray (any fish of superorder Batoidea)
• レre (2nd note of a major scale in movable-do solfège)
• 一道いちどうone road
• 半直線はんちょくせんhalf line
• 線せんray (e.g. X-ray)
• 光ひかりillumination