grade
[ɡɹeɪd] noun, verb
- noun A rating. “This fine-grade coin from 1837 is worth a good amount.”
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score. “He got a good grade on the test.”
- noun A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality.
- noun (linguistics) Degree (any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb).
- noun A slope (up or down) of a roadway or other passage “The grade of this hill is more than 5 percent.”
- noun (Canada, US, Philippines, education) A level of primary and secondary education. “Clancy is entering the fifth grade this year.”
- noun (Canada, education) A student of a particular grade (used with the grade level). “The grade fives are on a field trip.”
- noun An area that has been flattened by a grader (construction machine).
- verb (chiefly Canada, US) To assign scores to the components of an academic test, or to overall academic performance.
- verb To organize in grades. “a graded reader”
- verb To flatten, level, or smooth a large surface, especially with a grader.
- verb (sewing) To remove or trim part of a seam allowance from a finished seam so as to reduce bulk and make the finished piece more even when turned right side out.
- verb (patternmaking) To increase or decrease the dimensions of a garment pattern from the initial base size in such a way that the overall proportions of the silhouette are maintained across all sizes.
- verb To apply classifying labels to data (typically by a manual rather than automatic process). “Brain scans were graded on a five-point scale of atrophy.”
- verb (linguistics) To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.
- verb (intransitive) To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.
Synonyms
mark gradient paraphyletic group class form course level tier grad gradation score ground level degree rate rank range order place
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French grade (“a grade, degree”), from Latin gradus (“a step, pace, degree”), from Proto-Italic *graðus, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰradʰ-, *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). Doublet of gradus.
Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌹𐌸𐍃 (griþs, “step, grade”), Bavarian Gritt (“step, stride”), Lithuanian gri̇̀diju (“to go, wander”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A step or degree in any series, rank, quality, order; relative position or standing; as, grades of military rank; crimes of every grade; grades of flour.
- noun In a railroad or highway: (a) The rate of ascent or descent; gradient; deviation from a level surface to an inclined plane; --usually stated as so many feet per mile, or as one foot rise or fall in so many of horizontal distance; as, a heavy grade; a grade of twenty feet per mile, or of 1 in 264.
- verb To arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.
- verb To reduce to a level, or to an evenly progressive ascent, as the line of a canal or road.
Etymology [F. grade, L. gradus step, pace, grade, from gradi to step, go. Cf. Congress, Degree, Gradus.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “grade”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details