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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

grade.

A rating.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡɹeɪd/[ɡɹeɪd]Received-Pronunciation, US[ɡɹɛjd]British, Southern, Standard[ɡɹeːd]Canada
  1. A rating.

    This fine-grade coin from 1837 is worth a good amount.
    prime grade beef
  2. Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score.

    Canada · Philippines · US
    He got a good grade on the test.
    I gave him a good grade for effort.
  3. A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality.

  4. Degree (any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb).

  5. A slope (up or down) of a roadway or other passage

    The grade of this hill is more than 5 percent.
  6. A level of primary and secondary education.

    Canada · Philippines · US
    Clancy is entering the fifth grade this year.
    Clancy starts grade five this year.
  7. A student of a particular grade (used with the grade level).

    Canada
    The grade fives are on a field trip.
  8. An area that has been flattened by a grader (construction machine).

  9. The level of the ground.

    This material absorbs moisture and is probably not a good choice for use below grade.
  10. A gradian.

  11. In a linear system of divisors on an n-dimensional variety, the number of free intersection points of n generic divisors.

  12. A harsh scraping or cutting; a grating.

  13. A taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity that is not a clade.

  14. The degree of malignity of a tumor expressed on a scale.

  15. An eyeglass prescription.

    Philippines
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ɡɹeɪd/[ɡɹeɪd]Received-Pronunciation, US[ɡɹɛjd]British, Southern, Standard[ɡɹeːd]Canada
  1. To assign scores to the components of an academic test, or to overall academic performance.

    Canada · US
  2. To organize in grades.

    a graded reader
  3. To flatten, level, or smooth a large surface, especially with a grader.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.
  7. To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.

  8. To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.

    intransitive
  9. To pass from one school grade into the next.

    Canada · dated · intransitive
    I graded out of grade two and three and arrived in Miss Hanson's room.
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.