range
Pluralranges
Pluralranges
- 1A collection of different things of the same general kind; a selection or array.
The committee considered a range of options before deciding.
The boutique stocks a broad range of handmade jewelry.
UsageUsually a range of + plural or uncountable noun, often with an adjective: a wide range of colors, a broad range of equipment.
Similarvariety, selection, array, assortment, spectrum
Note
Edwin Black writes of 'a range of other craftsmen'. It lets a writer point to variety without listing it, and shops use it for the goods they stock.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Edwin Black uses the exact phrase 'a range of other craftsmen'. en.wiktionary.org
- 2To vary or extend between two limits, whether numbers, sizes or kinds; of a variable, to take any value within a given set.
The measured temperatures range from minus ten to forty degrees Celsius.
Ticket prices for the concert ranged from twenty to ninety dollars, depending on the seat.
UsageThings range from one amount to another, or between two amounts: prices range from five to ten dollars.
- 3The extent or reach covered by something; its scope or compass.
The investigation's range extended well beyond the original suspects.
His knowledge has remarkable range, from physics to poetry.
UsageOften in within/beyond the range of something, or after have: his knowledge has remarkable range.
Similarscope, extent, reach, breadth, span
Note
Reach in the figurative sense, at home in prose since the seventeenth century and in verse as well. John Fell (1661) praises 'the range and compass' of a scholar's knowledge. Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man speaks of 'Creation's ample range'. Often paired with compass, it measures how far a mind, a subject or a whole order of things extends.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- 1661 is the first-publication year of Fell's biography containing the quoted praise. en.wikisource.org
- John Fell praises a scholar's knowledge using the words 'the range and compass'. anglicanhistory.org
- Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man contains 'Creation's ample range'. gutenberg.org
- 4
- 5The maximum distance over which a weapon, device, or signal can operate effectively, or that a vehicle can travel without refueling or recharging.
The new rifle has an effective range of nearly a mile.
Detectors with a longer range can spot aircraft sooner.
UsageCommon in in range, within range and out of range: the phone is out of range.
Similarradius
- 6The distance between a person or sensor and an object, target, or event.
The radar reported the ship's range as twelve nautical miles.
Hunters estimate range before taking a shot.
UsageUsually with at: at close range, at a range of five miles.
Similardistance
Note
It is a measurement, not a limit. Compare a weapon's maximum reach, which is something a thing has, not a distance it is at. The delay of thunder, read through the speed of sound, gives the range of a lightning flash.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The delay between seeing lightning and hearing thunder can be used to estimate the lightning's distance, using the speed of sound. weather.gov
- 7A fireplace or cooking apparatus; now specifically, a large cooking stove with many burners.
He lit the range and started frying the onions.
The old farmhouse kitchen still had a coal-fired range against the wall.
Note
The stove inherited its name from the open fire. In Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), 'an hundred raunges' burn beside furnaces melting gold. In Roger L'Estrange (1692), a simple kitchen servant is told to 'take off the Range, and let down the Cynders' before bed. The many-burner stove came later, and the word stayed in the kitchen, as in a coal-fired range.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first three books were first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
- The poem contains 'an hundred raunges' alongside burning furnaces used to melt gold. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
- The cited L'Estrange work was published in 1692. en.wikisource.org
- L'Estrange records the quoted instruction to remove the range and lower the cinders before bed. archive.org
- The modern stove with multiple burners developed later than the cited fireplace uses. en.wikipedia.org
- 8An area set aside for shooting practice, military training, or testing weapons and equipment.
She fired a hundred rounds at the range before lunch.
Safety officers supervise every range during practice.
- 9The geographic area or zone where a species is normally found in nature.
Conservationists work to protect the species across its entire range.
The wolf's range once covered nearly the whole continent.
Similardistribution
Note
Ecologists use it for a species' natural distribution, a zone whose edges are set by climate, habitat and history. The word normally in the definition matters, because a range can shrink, as the wolf's has. Conservation therefore speaks of protecting a species across its whole range, not just where it survives in numbers.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- 10The full span of tones, from lowest to highest, that a voice or instrument can produce.
The young singer extended her range with daily practice.
Few instruments match the piano in sheer range.
Similarcompass
Note
In music, a range is usually given by its two boundary notes or counted in octaves, from the lowest tone to the highest. Compass is the established synonym. A voice's range is not fixed: it can widen with training, which is why singers speak of extending it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Musical range can be specified by boundary notes or expressed in octaves; compass is a synonym. qegschool.org.uk
- Vocal range can change and widen with training. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- 11The difference between the largest and smallest values in a data sample.
The range of the temperatures was eighteen degrees that week.
A wide range suggests the measurements are spread far apart.
Similarspread
Note
The simplest measure of spread in statistics is the largest observation minus the smallest. Because it depends only on the two extremes, a single unusual value can stretch it. It is one number, not a set like the range of a function, although both are mathematical terms.
Less common meanings
- 12An area of open, often unfenced, land used for grazing livestock.
The ranchers drove their herd out onto the range at dawn.
Much of the western range remains unfenced to this day.
UsageAnimals graze on the range, often called the open range.
Similarrangeland, pasture, grassland, prairie
Note
In James Taylor's Sweet Baby James (1970), a young cowboy 'lives on the range'. The land is open grazing ground, which ties it to the verb of roaming: the range is where herds range.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- James Taylor wrote and recorded Sweet Baby James. en.wikipedia.org
- Sweet Baby James was released in 1970. jamestaylor.com
- The song describes a young cowboy. music.apple.com
- Open range is grazing country where cattle roam. en.wikipedia.org
- 13To wander or roam freely over a wide area; to travel across or through a place.
Goats range freely along the rocky hillsides.
Herds of bison once ranged across the entire prairie.
UsageUsually followed by a place or manner phrase: range across, over or through an area, range freely.
- 14The set of all values that a function can produce as output.
For the squaring function, the range consists of all non-negative numbers.
Students plotted the graph to determine the function's range.
Oppositedomain
Note
Mathematics pairs this word with domain: the domain is what a function takes in, and the range is what it gives out. Strictly, the range is the set of outputs actually reached. It can be smaller than the codomain, the larger set the outputs are declared to lie in. Squaring real numbers, for instance, yields only the non-negative ones.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The domain is the set of inputs, and the range is the set of outputs actually produced. openstax.org
- The range can be smaller than the codomain, the declared set containing the outputs. set.kuleuven.be
- Squaring all real numbers produces exactly the non-negative real numbers. openstax.org
- 15The variety of roles an actor is able to play convincingly.
Critics praised the lead's remarkable range across genres.
Taking on the brutal villain stretched the actor's range.
Similarversatility
Note
Critics use this word in praise, and an actor proves range by moving between kinds of work, playing comedies as well as dramas. It works much like a singer's span of notes: the distance between an actor's lightest and darkest convincing roles is what is being measured.
- 16An ordered series of values, as defined by an iterator, that a program can step through.
The function returns a range that the loop iterates over.
Programmers often build a range to generate sequential indices.
Note
Programmers meet it as a stretch of values that an iterator walks through. In C++, std::for_each calls a function on each value in an input range. In other languages, a range is generated from a start, a stop and a step. Either way, it can be consumed one value at a time without first building the whole list.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- A programming range can be traversed using an iterator. eel.is
- C++ std::for_each applies a function to every element in its input range. eel.is
- Other languages, such as Python, support ranges specified by start, stop and step. docs.python.org
- Python ranges calculate individual values as needed without first constructing a list. docs.python.org
- C++ input ranges can supply successive values without first constructing a list. eel.is
- 17Of a species, to be native to or live within a particular district or region.
Wolves range across much of the northern hemisphere.
Jaguars once ranged widely across the American Southwest.
UsageOften range from one place to another, or across or throughout a region.
Note
It implies no movement. A species that ranges across several countries need not travel between them, which sets it apart from the verb of roaming.
- 18The defensive area on the field that a player can cover.
Scouts praised the infielder's range, noting how much ground he covered.
A shortstop with limited range forces the team to shift on defense.
UsageOften with an adjective or a possessive: a fielder has good range, limited range, his range at shortstop.
Note
Fielding analysis even turns it into a statistic, range factor. The matching verb, ranging after a ball, describes the skill in motion.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Baseball fielding analysis includes a statistic called range factor. mlb.com
- 19To determine the distance to a target, especially for aiming.
The crew ranged the enemy ship before opening fire.
Before the long shot, the hunter stopped to range the elk with his laser and adjust his scope.
Note
An artillery verb. A gun crew ranges a target so that elevation and aim can be set, historically by firing ranging shots and correcting them, now by laser or radar. It is the action behind the noun of measured distance: to range a target is to find its range.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Artillery ranging establishes the range and elevation needed to engage a target. en.wikisource.org
- Historically, artillery ranging involved firing shots, observing their results and making corrections. en.wikisource.org
- Laser equipment can determine the distance to an artillery target. documents.un.org
- Radar can locate targets for artillery fire. documents.un.org
- The artillery verb describes finding a target's range, or distance. tradocfcoeccafcoepfwprod.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net
- 20Of a fielder, to cover a long distance in order to make a defensive play.
The center fielder ranged deep into the gap to make the catch.
Infielders who range well turn singles into outs.
UsageUsually with a direction: range to his left, range deep into the gap.
Note
In Jason Aronoff's Going, Going ... Caught! (2009), Mays 'ranged to his left' after a ball no one should have reached. A center fielder ranges into the gap. The verb narrates a single play, and the drama is that the ball seemed out of reach.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Jason Aronoff wrote Going, Going ... Caught! en.wikipedia.org
- 21To arrange people or things in a row or rows, or in a particular order or position.
The gardener ranged the seedlings in tidy rows.
The shopkeeper liked to range dozens of glass jars on the shelves behind the counter, each one filled with a different spice.
UsageOften with a place phrase or in the passive: chairs ranged along the wall, books ranged by color.
Note
The military picture behind it is old. The King James Bible of 1611 has Maccabeus range his army by bands, setting his troops in order. George Turnbull's The Principles of Moral Philosophy (1740) moves the verb into thought, with effects 'collected and ranged into proper order', arranged as an argument rather than a battle line.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
- 2 Maccabees 12:20 says he ranged his army by bands, not hands. en.wikisource.org
- George Turnbull wrote The Principles of Moral Philosophy, first published in 1740. oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
- Turnbull uses the quoted wording about collecting and ordering effects in a philosophical discussion. oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
- 22To be drawn up or extend in a line or row.
The mountains range from north to south across the region.
Spectators ranged along both sides of the road.
UsageUsually with a place or direction phrase: range along the road, range from north to south.
Note
The participle serves as an adjective for things standing in rows. James Thomson's The City of Dreadful Night (1874) has 'ranged mansions dark and still as tombs'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- James Thomson wrote The City of Dreadful Night. en.wikisource.org
- The poem contains the exact words 'ranged mansions dark and still as tombs'. en.wikisource.org
- 23To classify or rank things; to be placed in a class or rank among others.
And range with humble livers in content.
1613, William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher] - 24An aggregate of individuals of the same rank or degree; an order or class.
The next Range of Beings above him are the pure and immaterial Intelligences , the next below him is the sensible Nature.
a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind - 25An act of wandering or roving about; an excursion or ramble.
- 26One of the crosspieces of a ladder.
the first range of that ladder
Can we date this quote?, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England - 27A fine sieve for separating flour from bran.
- 28Under the US federal land survey, a north-to-south band of six-mile-square townships, counted east or west from a principal meridian.
- 29To dominate something or bring it under control.
The soule is variable in all manner of formes, and rangeth to her selfe, and to her estate, whatsoever it be, the senses of the body, and all other accidents.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes - 30To set someone or something in a particular position relative to another, especially on the opposing side.
- 31To sail or otherwise move along, parallel to, or close beside something, such as a coast.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Proto-Germanic *hringaz ("ring, circle, curve") passed through Frankish into Old French as the noun renc or reng ("a rank, row"). From that noun came the verb rengier ("to range, to rank, to order"), which became Middle English rengen. Ring is a doublet.