graded

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of grade.

   The professor graded the final exams within a week.

   All submissions were graded by two independent reviewers.

   Note

   One spelling serves both the finite past (she graded the papers) and the participle that follows have or appears in the passive (the papers were graded). The verb behind it ranges widely: marking academic work, a US and Canadian use; leveling ground; trimming a seam allowance; resizing a garment pattern; labeling data by hand. Placed before a noun, the participle shades into the roadwork adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Arranged in a series that steadily increases or decreases in the intensity of some quality.

   Like the weights on a rack at the gym, each one a measured step up from its neighbor.

   The course offers graded readings, each more demanding than the last.

   A set of graded filters lets photographers control light in even steps.

   Similargraduated, progressive, stepped, incremental

3. 3
   adjective

   Smoothed and leveled by a grader, the heavy machine used to flatten ground.

   Like raking a garden bed level before planting.

   Crews drove over the newly graded surface to check for low spots.

   The graded driveway drained well after the first heavy rain.

   Similarflattened

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