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• grade
  grade

  noun

  a degree or step in a scale, as of rank, advancement, quality, value, or intensity.
• -grade
  -grade

  a combining form meaning “walking, moving,” in the manner or by the means specified by the initial element.

grade

¹ American  

[grayd] / greɪd /

noun

• grades
  plural

1. a degree or step in a scale, as of rank, advancement, quality, value, or intensity.

   the best grade of paper.

2. a class of persons or things of the same relative rank, quality, etc.

3. a step or stage in a course or process.

4. a single division of a school classified according to the age or progress of the pupils. In the U.S., public schools are commonly divided into twelve grades below college.

5. the pupils in such a division.

6. (the) grades. elementary school.

   He first began teaching in the grades.

7. a letter, number, or other symbol indicating the relative quality of a student's work in a course, examination, or special assignment; mark.

8. a classification or standard of food based on quality, size, etc..

   grade A milk.

9. inclination with the horizontal of a road, railroad, etc., usually expressed by stating the vertical rise or fall as a percentage of the horizontal distance; slope.

10. Also called grade line. Building Trades. the level at which the ground intersects the foundation of a building.

11. an animal resulting from a cross between a parent of ordinary stock and one of a pure breed.

12. Mathematics. grad.

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verb (used with object)

• grades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graded,
  past participle,  past
• grading
  present participle

1. to arrange in a series of grades; class; sort.

   a machine that grades two thousand eggs per hour.

   Synonyms:

   categorize, order, rate, rank, classify

2. to determine the grade of.

3. to assign a grade to (a student's work); mark.

   I graded forty tests last night.

4. to cause to pass by degrees, as from one color or shade to another.

5. to reduce to a level or to practicable degrees of inclination.

   to grade a road.

6. to cross (an ordinary or low-grade animal) with an animal of a pure or superior breed.

verb (used without object)

• grades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graded,
  past participle,  past
• grading
  present participle

1. to incline; slant or slope.

   The road grades steeply for a mile.

2. to be of a particular grade or quality.

3. to pass by degrees from one color or shade to another; blend.

   See how the various colors grade into one another.

verb phrase

1. grade up to improve (a herd, flock, etc.) by breeding with purebreds.

idioms

1. up to grade, of the desired or required quality.

   This shipment is not up to grade.

2. at grade,

   1. on the same level.

      A railroad crosses a highway at grade.

   2. (of a stream bed) so adjusted to conditions of slope and the volume and speed of water that no gain or loss of sediment takes place.

3. make the grade, to attain a specific goal; succeed.

   He'll never make the grade in medical school.

-grade ² American  

1. a combining form meaning “walking, moving,” in the manner or by the means specified by the initial element.

   plantigrade.

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grade ¹ British  

/ ɡreɪd /

noun

1. a position or degree in a scale, as of quality, rank, size, or progression

   small-grade eggs

   high-grade timber

2. a group of people or things of the same category

3. a military or other rank

4. a stage in a course of progression

5. a mark or rating indicating achievement or the worth of work done, as at school

6. a unit of pupils of similar age or ability taught together at school

7. 1. a part of a railway, road, etc, that slopes upwards or downwards; inclination

   2. Also called: gradient. a measure of such a slope, esp the ratio of the vertical distance between two points on the slope to the horizontal distance between them

8. a unit of angle equal to one hundredth of a right angle or 0.9 degree

9. stockbreeding

   1. an animal with one purebred parent and one of unknown or unimproved breeding

   2. ( as modifier ) Compare crossbred purebred

      a grade sheep

10. linguistics one of the forms of the vowel in a morpheme when this vowel varies because of gradation

11. 1. on the same level

    2. (of a river profile or land surface) at an equilibrium level and slope, because there is a balance between erosion and deposition

12. informal

    1. to reach the required standard

    2. to succeed

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verb

1. (tr) to arrange according to quality, rank, etc

2. (tr) to determine the grade of or assign a grade to

3. (intr) to achieve or deserve a grade or rank

4. to change or blend (something) gradually; merge

5. (tr) to level (ground, a road, etc) to a suitable gradient

6. (tr) stockbreeding to cross (one animal) with another to produce a grade animal

-grade ² British  

combining form

1. indicating a kind or manner of movement or progression

   plantigrade

   retrograde

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grade Scientific  

/ grād /

1. The degree of inclination of a slope, road, or other surface.

2. A grouping of organisms done purely on the basis of shared features and without regard to evolutionary relationships. Grades may include organisms that do not share a common ancestor, or may exclude some organisms having the same common ancestor as the other organisms in the grade. For this reason, many taxonomists do not accept grades as formal classifications. The class Reptilia (reptiles) is a grade since it includes dinosaurs but not birds, even though birds are descended from dinosaurs.

3. Compare clade

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grade More Idioms  

1. see make the grade.

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Usage

What does -grade mean? The combining form -grade is used like a suffix meaning “walking; moving.” It is very occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in biology. The form -grade comes from Latin gradus, meaning “step,” or Latin gradī, meaning "to walk." These two Latin sources are the root of numerous words in English, from aggressive, degree, and grade to graduate, ingredient, and progress. Check out our entries for these six words to learn more.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misgrade
  verb
• overgrade
  verb (used with object)
• pregrade
  verb (used with object)
• regrade
  verb (used with object)
• misgraded
  adjective
• multigrade
  adjective
• ungraded
  adjective
• well-graded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• grades
  plural

Participles

• grading
  present
• graded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• grade
  simple
• grades
  simple
• have graded
  perfect
• has graded
  perfect
• am grading
  progressive
• are grading
  progressive
• is grading
  progressive
• have been grading
  perfect progressive
• has been grading
  perfect progressive

Past

• graded
  simple
• had graded
  perfect
• was grading
  progressive
• were grading
  progressive
• had been grading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will grade
  simple
• will have graded
  perfect
• will be grading
  progressive
• will have been grading
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of grade¹

First recorded in 1505–15; from French: “office,” from Latin gradus “step, stage, degree,” derivative of gradī “to go, step, walk”

Origin of -grade²

< Latin -gradus, combining form representing gradus step or gradī to walk. See grade, gradient

Explanation

Grade means "to evaluate or rank," like teachers who grade their students or a food inspector who grades a crop, determining whether it is "food-grade." Grade can be both a noun and a verb. The verb form is used when you grade something, meaning you assign it a value. The actual mark assigned is the noun version of the word grade, such as an A or B. The noun grade can be used to indicate the rank or quality of other items as well, like professional-grade cookware. Grade can also describe the slope of a mountain or road, like a steep grade that is dangerous in bad weather.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grade -grade grades graded grading

That led to a change in how Ofsted assessed schools, bringing in report cards designed to grade schools on several areas, rather than focusing on one overall grade.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

His father, he said, was the eldest child and was forced to leave school after the sixth grade to help support the family.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

EA also sought a score from Fitch Ratings, which initially said it expected a high-quality grade for the bonds before saying in June that it wouldn’t deliver a final rating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

"If I were to give them a grade, it would be an F," Ryu Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

By the time we had done the hills and the railroad grade, pushing in new snow all the time, they were ready for a rest.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

Investment-grade munis outperformed investment -grade taxable bonds by about 3%, while high-yield munis outperformed by a massive 11.4%.

From Forbes ● Jan. 15, 2015

Alongside a five-story addition built 61 years ago, the antique landmark is jammed by 1,009 kindergarten - through -sixth -grade pupils.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sixty percent of grades at Harvard College were A’s in the 2024-25 academic year, up from 24% in 2005-06.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

We also would have to administer a standardized test in certain grades, if we were going to open an actual school, and maintain annual records about student attendance and immunizations.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

His grades in math—a subject he’d done well at previously—suffered the worst.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

The Indonesian copper and gold producer raised its 2026 gold-in-concentrate production estimate to 775,000 ounces on better grades, the analyst notes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Now, I can read, and learn things; I go to a regular school in Eden Prairie, and I get good grades.

From "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen

The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. insurers have around $40 billion of debt investments on their books that Egan-Jones has privately graded.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

The result is that the Flagg card was graded a PSA Gem Mint 10 with a 10 autograph grade — as close to perfect as possible.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Among the criteria graded on Anderson's 'radar chart' were defensive regains, duel success, line-breaking passes, aerial-duel success and defensive errors.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Exams are graded differently in Wales and Northern Ireland and still use a letter system, while students in Scotland take Nationals instead of GCSEs.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Had she not died, she would’ve met Oscar, read this paper, graded it, talked to him during her office hours.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

In my last few years as a teacher before I retired in 2022, I—along with my fellow educators—were called into the administration office to discuss our grading policies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

At a meeting last month, the council agreed to an overhaul of its pay and grading structure after eight years of negotiations.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

He added that the council had made significant progress on a new pay and grading system since the period the Accounts Commission examined.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Postproduction covers anything that happens in the final stages of filmmaking, including specialties like sound design and color grading.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

He smiled encouragingly toward the back of the room and returned to his grading.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

Related Words

• category
• class
• classification
• condition
• degree
• level
• quality
• size
• standard