Definition of "grade"

grade

/ɡɹeɪd/

noun
plural grades
1. A rating.
2. (chiefly Canada, US) Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score.
3. A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality.
  Quotations
  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.
  1986–2012, paul wheaton permaculture, “Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat!”, in richsoil.com‎, retrieved 2014-03-17
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
6. (Canada, US, education) A level of primary and secondary education.
7. (Canada, education) A student of a particular grade (used with the grade level).
8. An area that has been flattened by a grader (construction machine).
9. The level of the ground.
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1836, John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone, A Poem
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. (ophthalmology, Philippines) An eyeglass prescription.
verb
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.
3. To flatten, level, or smooth a large surface, especially with a grader.
  Quotations
  The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.
  2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 129
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. To apply classifying labels to data (typically by a manual rather than automatic process).
6. (linguistics) To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.
  Quotations
  He has rightly observed that while -ísimo superlatives are typically prenominal, adjectives graded with the intensifier muy "very" are characteristically postnominal.
  1999, Jon Franco, Alazne Landa, Juan Martín, Grammatical Analyses in Basque and Romance Linguistics: Papers in Honor of Mario Saltarelli, John Benjamins Publishing, page 65
  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? […]
  2014, Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, Routledge, page 430
  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'.
  2020, Prekmurje Slovene Grammar: Avgust Pavel’s Vend nyelvtan (1942), BRILL, page 82
7. (intransitive) To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.
  Quotations
  And there were circles even beyond these – […] humanity grading and drifting beyond the educated vision, until no earthly invitation can embrace it.
  1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 34
8. (Canada, no longer current, intransitive) To pass from one school grade into the next.