gradus

¹ American  

[grey-duhs] / ˈgreɪ dəs /

noun

Music.

• graduses
  plural

1. a work consisting wholly or in part of exercises of increasing difficulty.

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gradus ² American  

[grey-duhs] / ˈgreɪ dəs /

noun

• graduses
  plural

1. a dictionary of prosody, especially one that gives word quantities and poetic phrases and that is intended to aid students in the writing of Latin and Greek verse.

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gradus British  

/ ˈɡreɪdəs /

noun

1. a book of études or other musical exercises arranged in order of increasing difficulty

2. prosody a dictionary or textbook of prosody for use in writing Latin or Greek verse

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• graduses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gradus¹

< Latin: grade, step

Origin of gradus²

First recorded in 1755–65; after Gradus ad Parnassum (a step to Parnassus), Latin title of a dictionary of prosody much used in English public schools during the 18th and 19th centuries

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gradus

There can be no doubt that it was this passage which induced St. Liguori to conclude that if the gradus propinquior were the first or second, it should be expressed in the petition.

From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, June 1865 by Various

At St. Augustine's, Canterbury, the distinctions or tiers were numbered, as D3; and the gradus or shelves of each distinction were numbered, as G 4.

From Old English Libraries by Ernest Albert Savage

Gradual.—A portion of Scripture formerly sung after the Epistle for the Day, from the steps of the Pulpit or Altar, and hence called Gradual, from the Latin gradus, meaning a step.

From The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia by William James Miller

Poets are classed by the power of their performance, and not according to its rank in a gradus.

From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore

The French have grade; It. and Sp., grado; Lat. gradus.

From Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850 by Various