# rank

Pronunciation: say "RANK" /ɹæŋk/

## Verb

1. To hold a particular position within a ranking.
   - Simple: To hold a certain place in an ordered list.
   - _The university ranks third in the nation for engineering._
   - _Few hotels rank as highly as this one for service._
2. To assign something a place in a class or order; to classify.
   - Simple: To put people or things in order based on how good or important they are.
   - _Critics rank the film among the best of the decade._
   - _The agency ranks universities by their research output each year._
10. To hold a higher rank than someone; to outrank. *(US)*
   - Simple: To be at a higher level than someone else.
   - _A senior officer ranks all the junior staff in the chain of command._
   - _Since colonels rank majors, a major must follow a colonel's orders during the drill._

## Noun

3. A position or level within a hierarchy, such as the grades of authority in the military or a person's standing in a society divided into social classes.
   - Simple: A person's level or position in a group like the army, or in society.
   - _After a decade in the navy, she finally attained the rank of commander._
   - _Each rank in the police force carries distinct responsibilities and pay._
4. The place held in a list ordered by some common measure, such as quality, popularity, population, or physical location.
   - Simple: The place something holds in a list put in order from highest to lowest.
   - _The city's rank by population rose after the latest census._
   - _A film's rank on the popularity chart can change from week to week._
5. A class or body of people, such as the members of a particular profession or organization.
   - Simple: A group of people who share a job or belong to the same body.
   - _Several critics of the new law came from the ranks of retired judges._
   - _After ten years in the classroom, he left the teaching ranks to open a bakery._
6. A row of people or things arranged side by side in a grid, often soldiers.
   - Simple: A line of people or things side by side, often soldiers in formation.
   - _The front rank of infantry knelt while those behind them fired._
   - _Workers planted the seedlings in neat ranks across the field._
11. The value of a playing card, determined by its number or face designation rather than by its suit.
   - Simple: The number or face value of a playing card, like a two, a queen, or an ace.
   - _Players compare the rank of their cards to decide who wins the trick._
   - _An ace usually holds the highest rank in the deck._
12. Any of the eight rows of squares running horizontally across a chessboard, each labeled with a number.
   - Simple: On a chessboard, one of the eight rows of squares that run from side to side.
   - _Advancing a pawn to the eighth rank lets you promote it to a queen._
   - _Her rook controlled the entire rank, cutting off the enemy king._
13. A level in a scientific system for classifying living things.
   - Simple: A level in the system scientists use to sort living things into groups.
   - _Genus and species are two of the main ranks used to classify organisms._
   - _Biologists debated whether the group deserved the rank of order._
14. In mathematics, the largest number of independent elements a structure can contain, such as the linearly independent columns or rows of a matrix, or the corresponding elements of a module or matroid.
   - Simple: In math, the greatest number of independent rows or columns of a matrix, or of similar parts of related structures.
   - _A square matrix is invertible exactly when its rank equals its size._
   - _Row reduction lets you read off the rank by counting the nonzero rows._
15. The number of dimensions of an array or tensor: that is, how many indices are needed to specify one of its elements.
   - Simple: The number of separate directions used to organize the values in an array or tensor.
   - _A scalar has rank zero, a vector rank one, and a matrix rank two._
   - _The library raised an error because the two tensors had a different rank._
7. A spot set aside for taxis to line up and wait until passengers come to hire them.
   - Simple: A place where taxis stand in a line, waiting for people who need a ride.
   - _After the match, the queue at the taxi rank stretched round the corner._
   - _Black cabs pulled into the rank one after another as the last train came in._

## Adjective

8. Having a very strong and unpleasant smell or taste; foul or disgusting.
   - Simple: Smelling or tasting very bad. Really disgusting.
   - _The butter had turned rank after weeks without refrigeration._
   - _Hunters knew the cave by the rank odor of the animals denning inside._
9. Complete and absolute; used to intensify something undesirable.
   - Simple: Total and complete, used to describe something bad.
   - _Calling that book a masterpiece is rank nonsense._
   - _The hiring decision was rank favoritism from start to finish._
16. Growing with great vigor and rapidity, and so becoming coarse or overgrown.
   - Simple: Growing very fast and thick, often in a wild or coarse way.
   - _The neglected hedgerows had grown rank and tangled over the years._
   - _Rank vegetation choked the old path through the marsh._
18. Of a horse, headstrong and difficult to control or restrain.
   - Simple: Hard to control because it keeps pulling and fighting against you.
   - _The jockey could barely settle the rank gelding before the start._
   - _A rank racehorse wastes its strength fighting the rider early on._

## Adjective

17. Causing strong growth; so rich and fertile that it produces vegetation luxuriantly. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: So rich that it makes plants grow fast and thick.
19. Suffering from excessive growth or hypertrophy; overfull, swollen, or plethoric. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Swollen or overgrown because of too much growth in the body.
20. Lustful, lascivious, and driven by strong sexual desire. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Filled with strong sexual desire.

## Adverb

21. Quickly, eagerly, and impetuously; in a headlong manner. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Quickly and eagerly, without holding back.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To place people or things abreast or in a line.
- (noun) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a single quality, with one pipe corresponding to each key or pedal.

## Origin

**Meanings 8–9, 16–21** — Old English ranc ("proud, haughty, showy, bold, strong") gave Middle English rank ("strong, proud"). Earlier stages are Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic *rankaz ("straight"), and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "straight, direct." Dutch rank ("slender"), Danish rank ("straight, erect") and Swedish rank ("slender, shaky") are related.
**Meanings 1–7, 10–15** — Proto-Germanic *hringaz ("something bent or curved") gave Frankish *hring ("ring"), which became Old French ranc, rang or reng ("line, row, rank"). Middle English took it as rank ("line, row"). Old English hring ("ring") is related. Rank is a doublet of both ring and rink.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/rank (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).