A fully three‐dimensional ray tracing code that includes a realistic antenna pattern, toroidal effects, and refraction is used to calculate the absorption by non‐Maxwellian distributions of the extraordinary mode in the nonrelativistic limit away from normal incidence. The ray tracing approach extends results obtained by previous authors who used a relativistic treatment in slab geometry to a more realistic configuration and a broader range of parameters. A monotonically decreasing superthermal tail in the distribution of electron velocities parallel to the tokamak magnetic field is represented by adding a drifted Maxwellian distribution to a bulk Maxwellian distribution. This combines a high degree of flexibility in the set of tail parameters available with the possibility of obtaining exact analytic expressions for the dielectric tensor elements. At low densities, small tails (tail fraction &bartil;0.5%) can significantly alter the wave absorption characteristics, including the integrated absorption, spatial deposition profile, and velocity space deposition profile. Because of the presence of tail electrons, significant heating is found for high field side launching in a high‐density plasma where the fundamental cyclotron resonance is cut off.