array

plural arrays

1. countableuncountableClothing and ornamentation; raiment.

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

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   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.

   2017, anonymous author, “Sovay”, in Roud # 7, Laws N21

2. countableuncountableA collection laid out to be viewed in full.

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

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

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   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!

   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

3. countableuncountableAn orderly series, arrangement or sequence.

   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

   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

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   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.

   2007 July 25, Felicity Barringer, “California Utility Agrees to Buy Power Generated by Solar Array”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 05 May 2021

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

   drawn up in battle array

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   wedged together in the closest 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

   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.

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC

5. countableuncountableA large collection.

   We offer a dazzling array of choices.

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   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.

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

   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.

   2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2018

   Synonyms: panoply

6. countableuncountablemathematicsA matrix.
7. countableuncountablecomputerAny 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.
8. countableuncountablelawA 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.
9. countableuncountablegovernmentA militia.
10. collectivecountableuncountableA group of hedgehogs.

    The array of hedgehogs that have their own running club

    2021 November 26, Jon McMichael, “The array of hedgehogs that have their own running club”, in KOAA News5, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026

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    If you get your hands on several of these cuties, you've got yourself an "array of hedgehogs."

    2015 December 9, “Cute alert: Arizona officials make pet hedgehogs legal”, in Arizona Republic, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026

    The ad shows an array of hedgehogs shopping in a supermarket

    2014 February 19, Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn, “Listen up hedgehogs: Arla’s Lactofree ad is not misleading”, in Food Navigator, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026

11. countableuncountableA microarray.

present singular third person arrays · participle present arraying · participle past arrayed · past arrayed

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

   He was arrayed in his finest robes and jewels.

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

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

   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.

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

   Synonyms: don, dress, put on, accouter, address, apparel, attire, beclothe

2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.

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

   2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN

3. lawTo set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.

   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.

   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