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Synonyms

ranking

American  
[rang-king] / ˈræŋ kɪŋ /

adjective

  1. senior or superior in rank, position, etc..

    a ranking diplomat.

  2. prominent or highly regarded.

    a ranking authority on Soviet affairs.

  3. occupying a specific rank, position, etc. (often used in combination).

    a low-ranking executive.

noun

  1. an act or instance of indicating relative standing.

  2. a list showing such standing.

ranking British  
/ ˈræŋkɪŋ /

adjective

  1. prominent; high ranking

  2. slang possessed of style; fashionable; exciting

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a position on a scale; rating

    a ranking in a tennis tournament
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ranking

First recorded in 1860–65; rank 1 + -ing 2, -ing 1

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."

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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.

The Rockets on the other hand, went 22-23 during clutch moments, ranking 16th in the league.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2026

But he did not have it all his own way with Wilson, a three-time ranking event winner, making the highest break of the session with a superb 139 clearance in frame five.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

Investors have poured about a net $680 million into the fund this year, ranking it second among all total market value ETFs, according to FactSet.

From Barron's • Apr. 17, 2026

It sent preliminary findings, proposing that Google start to let third-party search engines, as well as artificial-intelligence chatbots, access search data, including ranking, query and click-and-view data on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 16, 2026

The more bouts you won and the larger the margin you won by, the higher your ranking post-pools.

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.