ranking
Americanadjective
noun
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rankings
plural
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an act or instance of indicating relative standing.
-
a list showing such standing.
adjective
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prominent; high ranking
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slang possessed of style; fashionable; exciting
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ranking
Explanation
Your spot on a scale is your ranking. If your football team has a #10 ranking and you’re playing #1, well good luck. Your class ranking is how you measure up. The student with the highest ranking is the valedictorian. All kinds of things have rankings, from the top 100 colleges in the US to a person's constantly updated list of favorite horror movies. Athletes and the teams they play for have rankings too. In the military, someone who has a higher rank, or position, than anyone else who's present might say, "As the ranking officer, I'll command the troops to retreat."
Vocabulary lists containing ranking
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And after a standout showing at the All-American Bowl, Luke soared into the top rung of every major recruiting ranking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The NFL and helmet makers invested tens of millions of dollars into research, and independent labs began ranking helmets on their level of protection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
The chance to beat the woman who had taken her number one ranking was extra motivation for Sabalenka.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Though the U.S. population is projected to grow modestly through 2100, the country is projected to fall from third to sixth place in a ranking of the world’s most populous countries.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Chronicler guessed he had been a low ranking officer not long ago.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Portsmouth Water and Bristol Water were the only companies to score "good" in both metrics, retaining their position at the top of the rankings as the sector's best performers.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
The researchers caution that the rankings are not definitive.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Fitch’s rankings include both the larger metropolitan statistical areas, as well as metropolitan divisions, which are subdivisions of larger metro areas.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
These changes helped bring test scores from the bottom of national rankings to the top in fourth grade math and reading, and even eighth grade math, adjusting for demographics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
My individual results continued to climb as well, improving both my national and international rankings, being recognized both on and off the strip for my efforts.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
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.
