a number of persons forming a separate class in a social hierarchy or in any graded body.
a social or official position or standing, as in the armed forces.
the rank of captain.
high position or station in the social or some similar scale.
a woman of rank.
a class in any scale of comparison.
relative position or standing.
a writer of the first rank.
a row, line, or series of things or persons.
orchestra players arranged in ranks.
ranks,
the members of an armed service apart from its officers; enlisted personnel.
military enlisted personnel as a group.
Usually ranks the general body of any party, society, or organization apart from the officers or leaders.
orderly arrangement; array.
a line of persons, especially soldiers, standing abreast in close-order formation (distinguished from file).
British. a place or station occupied by vehicles available for hire; stand.
a taxi rank.
Chess, Checkers. one of the horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard or checkerboard.
a set of organ pipes of the same kind and tonal color.
Also called determinant rank. Mathematics. the order of the nonzero determinant of greatest order that can be selected from a given matrix by the elimination of rows and columns.
Mining. the classification of coal according to hardness, from lignite to anthracite.
to arrange in ranks or in regular formation.
The men were ranked according to height. He ranked the chess pieces on the board.
to assign to a particular position, station, class, etc..
She was ranked among the most admired citizens.
to outrank.
The colonel ranks all other officers in the squadron.
Slang. to insult; criticize.
to form a rank or ranks.
to take up or occupy a place in a particular rank, class, etc..
to rank well ahead of the other students.
to have rank or standing.
to be the senior in rank.
The colonel ranks at this camp.
Slang. to complain.
pull rank (on), to make use of one's superior rank to gain an advantage over (someone). Also pull one's rank (on).
break ranks,
to leave an assigned position in a military formation.
to disagree with, defect from, or refuse to support one's colleagues, party, or the like.
growing with excessive luxuriance; vigorous and tall of growth.
tall rank weeds.
producing an excessive and coarse growth, as land.
having an offensively strong smell or taste.
a rank cigar.
offensively strong, as a smell or taste.
utter; absolute.
a rank amateur; rank treachery.
highly offensive; disgusting.
a rank sight of carnage.
grossly coarse, vulgar, or indecent.
rank language.
Slang. inferior; contemptible.
a position, esp an official one, within a social organization, esp the armed forces
the rank of captain
high social or other standing; status
a line or row of people or things
the position of an item in any ordering or sequence
a place where taxis wait to be hired
a line of soldiers drawn up abreast of each other Compare file 1
any of the eight horizontal rows of squares on a chessboard
(in systemic grammar) one of the units of description of which a grammar is composed. Ranks of English grammar are sentence, clause, group, word, and morpheme
music a set of organ pipes controlled by the same stop
maths (of a matrix) the largest number of linearly independent rows or columns; the number of rows (or columns) of the nonzero determinant of greatest order that can be extracted from the matrix
military to fall out of line, esp when under attack
to maintain discipline or solidarity, esp in anticipation of attack
to get one's own way by virtue of one's superior position or rank
(tr) to arrange (people or things) in rows or lines; range
to accord or be accorded a specific position in an organization, society, or group
(tr) to array (a set of objects) as a sequence, esp in terms of the natural arithmetic ordering of some measure of the elements
to rank students by their test scores
(intr) to be important; rate
money ranks low in her order of priorities
to take precedence or surpass in rank
the colonel ranks at this camp
showing vigorous and profuse growth
rank weeds
highly offensive or disagreeable, esp in smell or taste
(prenominal) complete or absolute; utter
a rank outsider
coarse or vulgar; gross
his language was rank
J ( oseph ) Arthur , 1st Baron. 1888–1972, British industrialist and film executive, whose companies dominated the British film industry in the 1940s and 1950s
Otto (ˈɔto). 1884–1939, Austrian psychoanalyst, noted for his theory that the trauma of birth may be reflected in certain forms of mental illness
What does rank mean? Rank most commonly refers to the position or status that has been assigned to someone or something to distinguish it from others in a group. In certain organizations, especially the military, rank refers to someone’s official position in a hierarchy—an organizational structure in which people have increasing levels of authority based on their rank. For example, in the military, the lowest rank may be private, and the highest rank may be general. The word can also be used to refer to less official positions or statuses (ones that have not been assigned but exist based on other factors), such as a person’s status within society. Rank can also be used collectively to refer to all of the people within a group with the same status. As a verb, rank most commonly means to assign something a status or position to distinguish it from others in a group, as in Please rank the top five candidates in order from best to worst. It can also mean to have a particular rank or position, as in She ranks above all the other executives. The verb rank is sometimes used in overlapping ways with the verb rate, but rate most commonly means to assign something a value or rating independently of other things, whereas rank typically means to determine the position of something compared to other things. Unrelatedly, rank can also be used as an adjective meaning offensively strong, especially in smell or taste, as in There’s a rank odor coming from the trash can. Rank is a very common word and has many other specific meanings as a noun, verb, and adjective.
See flagrant.
First recorded in 1560–70; from French ranc (noun, obsolete), Old French renc, ranc, rang “row, line,” from Germanic, akin to ring 1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English ranc “bold, proud, mature, showy”; cognate with Old Norse rakkr “slender, straight, bold”; the original Germanic sense was probably “upright”; the development of the meanings in English is uncertain
The word rank often deals with one's position or status in a group. In the military, an officer with a high rank will be in charge of soldiers of lower rank. The noun rank refers to a position within a hierarchy, and to rank something is to put it in order — for example, your high school might rank students in terms of their GPAs. You can also use rank to describe an especially foul smell, like the rank gym shoes in the back of your closet. Linguists see the Old English ranc as having roots prior to the 11th century, possibly from the Old Norse rakkr, meaning "straight."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By 2023 he had a Washington desk job with a rank equivalent to an Army two-star general.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The game set the standard for both open-world and live-service games and, more than a decade after release, continues to rank among the industry’s most-played games.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
A former military lawyer who reached the rank of colonel in the Air Force, Graham ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
I have played every single one of them and, like many gamers, would rank Black Flag among the best.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
As the British marched on to Concord—rank on rank, as if on parade—the Patriots’ spy network mustered hundreds of militiamen.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
Another potential beneficiary is Rank One Computing Corp., which saw its stock rise 1.6% on Friday.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
Rank of New Hampshire in United Health Foundation’s annual analysis of the nation’s health, which includes nearly 100 measures of health and well-being.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
Rank the entries on your wishlist in order of importance, then determine three locations that check most of those boxes.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 29, 2025
Meanwhile, Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge says a cut in NHS funding will mean inpatient beds being reduced from 21 to 12 – what it described as "a devastating decision".
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
But Hink or Honk we relish the Plonk, And Honk or Hank we relish the Rank, And Hank or Hink we think it a jink To Honk or Hank or Hink!
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
On the tax-complexity scale, the World Cup ranks an 8 out of 10.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
The move aimed to increase controller ranks and ease New York region travel delays, which can ripple across the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The most daring, the most violent, the "person in the top gear", as one 23-year-old put it, has a chance -- albeit slim -- of rising through the ranks.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
This time, Argentina have another superstar number 10 in their ranks.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Somewhere near the ranks of American soldiers and officers stood William Lee.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Nielsen, which releases a weekly ratings ranker for streaming content, also uses hours watched to rank programs.
From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2021
News, the magazine that has already established itself as the most noticed ranker of the nation’s colleges and universities.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2017
“Because I intend on making one that’s a whole lot ranker than we’ve had before.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 1, 2014
In spite of a flat warning that their showing in battle would determine whether they would be sent home or kept in uniform, many a ranker, many a subaltern flubbed his battle shots.
From Time Magazine Archive
Confess yourself to Heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker.
From An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans by Child, Lydia Maria Francis
"Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet," Ms Kennedy told the magazine.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2024
The feminist with a fundamentally optimistic vision, who believed that people, especially men, could be better, might be soon replaced by the rankest misogynist.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2020
The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2018
For the F.A., claiming to be the world’s policeman while turning a blind eye to apparent offenses at home would have been the rankest hypocrisy.
From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2016
Hedgerows and verges were at their rankest and thickest.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Opta stats show that, since 1998, England have been eliminated every time they have faced a top-10 ranked nation in the knockout stages of the World Cup.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Arena ranked Kimi K3 ninth worldwide for text queries.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The Dodgers have sustained their success through a luxury-tax payroll of over $420 million and a highly ranked player-development system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Pegula, 31, who hails from Buffalo, N.Y., actually went into the match as the more impressively ranked player, earning the No. 4 seed in the competition, while Gauff, 22, was ranked seventh.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
I came into the games ranked eighth in the world, and no matter what everyone else expected of me, I wanted to win.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Winds drifting south meant the capital Washington was also hard-hit, coming in at the second-highest "very unhealthy" ranking on the index, when authorities urge all people to avoid unnecessary outdoor activity.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
They included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the second ranking Democrat in leadership, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
U.S. tech investors may welcome the chance to secure more direct exposure to South Korea’s second-biggest company, ranking behind only Samsung Electronics.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
Fery, a virtually unknown British wild card with a triple-digit ranking, has become the emotional heartbeat of Wimbledon while legitimately diverting some national attention from England’s World Cup quest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Chronicler guessed he had been a low ranking officer not long ago.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
