grade

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 grìdiju (“to go, wander”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹeɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophones: grayed, greyed
• Rhymes: -eɪd

grade (plural grades)

1. A rating.

   This fine-grade coin from 1837 is worth a good amount.

2. (chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score.

   Synonym: mark

   He got a good grade on the test.

   I gave him a good grade for effort.

   You need a grade of at least 80% in first-year calculus to be admitted to the CS major program.

3. A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality.
   • 1986–2012, paul wheaton permaculture, “Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat!”, in richsoil.com‎^[1], retrieved 2014-03-17:

     There are a lot of varieties of diatomaceous earth, so when you are shopping, be sure to get the right stuff! Make sure that you get food grade diatomaceous earth. Some people make 3% of the food they eat be diatomaceous earth.

4. (linguistics) 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. (Canada, US, Philippines, education) A level of primary and secondary education.

   Clancy is entering the fifth grade this year.

   Clancy starts grade five this year.

7. (Canada, education) A student of a particular grade (used with the grade level).

   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. (mathematics) A gradian.
11. (geometry) 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.
    • 1836, John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone, A Poem, →OCLC:

      The whistle of the shot as it cuts the leaves / Of the maples around the church’s eaves— / And the grade of hatchets, fiercely thrown, / On wigwam-log, and tree, and stone.

13. (systematics) A taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity that is not a clade.
14. (medicine) The degree of malignity of a tumor expressed on a scale.
15. (Philippines, ophthalmology) An eyeglass prescription.

• (taxon that is not a clade): paraphyletic group
• (slope): gradient

• → Japanese: グレード (gurēdo)
• → Swahili: gredi

grade (third-person singular simple present grades, present participle grading, simple past and past participle graded)

1. (chiefly Canada, US) To assign scores to the components of an academic test, or to overall academic performance.
2. To organize in grades.

   a graded reader

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

   to grade land before building on it

   • 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 129:

     The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.

4. (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.
5. (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.
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. (linguistics) To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.
   • 1999, Jon Franco, Alazne Landa, Juan Martín, Grammatical Analyses in Basque and Romance Linguistics: Papers in Honor of Mario Saltarelli, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 65:

     He has rightly observed that while -ísimo superlatives are typically prenominal, adjectives graded with the intensifier muy "very" are characteristically postnominal.

   • 2014, Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, Routledge, →ISBN, page 430:

     Adjectives graded for comparative and superlative degree can function both attributively and predicatively. Most descriptive adjectives are gradable: As modifiers of a noun Have you got a larger size? […]

   • 2020, Prekmurje Slovene Grammar: Avgust Pavel’s Vend nyelvtan (1942), BRILL, →ISBN, page 82:

     Similarly to the Hungarian adjectives graded with the suffix -ik, in place of naj, najto, or, in agreement with the noun, -najte, -najta, -najto forms occur, e.g., najtolepsi or najtelepsi, najtelepsa, najtelepse 'most beautiful'.

8. (intransitive) To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.
   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 34:

     And there were circles even beyond these – […] humanity grading and drifting beyond the educated vision, until no earthly invitation can embrace it.

9. (Canada, no longer current, intransitive) To pass from one school grade into the next.

   I graded out of grade two and three and arrived in Miss Hanson's room.

• garde, radge, Agder, Dager, Edgar, Adger, Degar, EDGAR, raged, Gared, greda, Gerda

grade

1. plural of graad

• (Internet slang) 龜／龟

From English grade.

grade

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, chiefly university slang) grade

grado +‎ -e

• Audio:

  (file)

grade

1. gradually

• malabrupte

Borrowed from Latin gradus. Compare degré. Doublet of gradus.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁad/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ad
• Homophone: grades

grade m (plural grades)

1. rank
   • 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XLII, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et C^ie, éditeurs, […], →OCLC:

     Ce que je puis dire, c’est que le choix qu’avait fait ce gentilhomme de la carrière des armes lui avait si bien réussi, qu’en peu d’années, par sa valeur et sa belle conduite, et sans autre appui que son mérite éclatant, il parvint au grade de capitaine d’infanterie, et se vit en passe d’être promu bientôt à celui de mestre de camp.

     What I can say, is that the choice that this gentleman made concerning the career of arms succeeded well for him, that in few years, by his valour and good conduct, and without any support other than his shining merit, he reached the rank of captain of infantry, and saw himself in a position to be soon promoted to that of master of corps.

2. (geometry) gradian

• degré
• rang

• en prendre pour son grade
• monter en grade

• gradation
• grader

• → Romanian: grad

• “grade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

13th century. From Old Galician-Portuguese grade (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin cratis, cratem (“wickerwork”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɾaðe̝/

grade f (plural grades)

1. (archaic) cage
2. grate (metal grille)
3. harrow (device dragged across ploughed land to smooth the soil)
   • 1474, Antonio López Ferreiro, editor, Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática, Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 74:

     Iten, preçaron duas grades e hun chedeiro e dous temoos de cerna, a parte dos menores em quorenta :XL -? maravedis

     Item, they appraised two harrows, a cart's bed and two shafts of heartwood, the part corresponding to the kids, 40 coins

4. any similarly formed frame or structure
5. common starfish (Asterias rubens)

   Synonyms: estrela do mar, rapacricas

6. Ursa Major

   Synonyms: Carro, Osa Maior

• gradar

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “grade”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “grade”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “grade”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “grade”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “grade”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

grade

1. inflection of gradar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Contraction of gerade.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡraːdə/

grade

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of gerade

• “grade” in Duden online
• “grade” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

• Hyphenation: gra‧de

From Old Galician-Portuguese grade, from Latin crātis, possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *krtis.

grade f (plural grades)

1. grate (metal grille)
2. a light fence
3. harrow (device dragged across ploughed land to smooth the soil)
4. grid

grade

1. inflection of gradar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡrade]

grade n

1. indefinite plural of grad

grade (Cyrillic spelling граде)

1. vocative singular of grad

grade

1. inflection of gradar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative