rank
Forms
- Comparative
- ranker
- Superlative
- rankest
- Plural
- ranks
- present (v1)
- rank
- past (v2)
- ranked
- past participle (v3)
- ranked
- present participle
- ranking
- 3rd person singular
- ranks
Definitions
1.Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.(informal)
- And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
2.Having a very strong, bad taste or odor.
- Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?
- Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.
3.complete, unmitigated, utter.
- I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.
- England's domination of the first half was almost total, but they somehow contrived to allow Tunisia to raise themselves off the floor by virtue of rank carelessness from [Gareth] Southgate's side.
1.A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
- The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.
- Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs[…].
2.One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).
3.The value of a playing card.
- The ranks are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace.
4.In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
1.To place abreast or in a line.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2986
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, direct”).