ladder
Americannoun
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a structure of wood, metal, or rope, commonly consisting of two sidepieces between which a series of bars or rungs are set at suitable distances, forming a means of climbing up or down.
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something resembling this.
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a means of rising, as to eminence.
the ladder of success.
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a graded series of stages or levels in status; a hierarchical order of position or rank.
high on the political ladder.
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Nautical. companionway.
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Chiefly British. a run in a stocking.
verb (used with object)
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to climb or mount by means of a ladder.
to ladder a wall.
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to furnish with a ladder.
to ladder a water tower.
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Chiefly British. to cause a run in (a stocking).
verb (used without object)
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Chiefly British. to get a run, as in a stocking.
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to gain in popularity or importance.
He laddered to the top of his profession.
noun
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a portable framework of wood, metal, rope, etc, in the form of two long parallel members connected by several parallel rungs or steps fixed to them at right angles, for climbing up or down
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any hierarchy conceived of as having a series of ascending stages, levels, etc
the social ladder
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anything resembling a ladder
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( as modifier )
ladder stitch
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Also called: run. a line of connected stitches that have come undone in knitted material, esp stockings
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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laddersimple
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ladderssimple
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have ladderedperfect
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has ladderedperfect
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am ladderingprogressive
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are ladderingprogressive
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is ladderingprogressive
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have been ladderingperfect progressive
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has been ladderingperfect progressive
Past
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ladderedsimple
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had ladderedperfect
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was ladderingprogressive
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were ladderingprogressive
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had been ladderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ladder
First recorded before 1000; Middle English ladder(e), Old English hlǣd(d)er; cognate with German Leiter, Dutch leer (also ladder, from Frisian); akin to Gothic hleithra “tent, hut”; originally, “something that slopes or leans”; see also lean 1
Explanation
If your ball lands on the roof, grab a ladder and climb up and get it. A ladder has steps you use to reach up high. If you climb the corporate ladder, you’re moving up in the business world. Some ladders are just a few feet tall, and others are taller than a house. Still others are invisible –- any time you move up in your career as a banker or NFL football player, you climb the ladder. In British English, a ladder is a run in stockings, which is funny because it usually looks like one. The superstition that it's bad luck to walk under an open ladder dates from the eighteenth century.
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:
The real engine of the business is selling products such as Love bracelets in huge volumes to shoppers further down the income ladder.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The corporate ladder just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Here, a filmmaker who managed to reach the peak of Olympus makes the prideful, ill-fated decision to hoist a ladder toward the stars, trying to get even higher, past where even the Gods can see.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Based in San Francisco, he says that the traditional career ladder mindset of staying at one company and working your way up didn't apply to him.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
As we stopped to get the ladder, I said, “Dad, I wouldn’t have lived up all my wages, in the Dakotas. I’d have sent money back.”
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Some species may have acted as fire ladders, helping flames move through the landscape while also crowding out and smothering other vegetation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
The city is recommending “tamper-resistant steel cages around the units,” locking all exterior ladders and setting up motion-activated security cameras that would immediately notify business owners or landlords about unauthorized rooftop activity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The research that discovered this truth about bond ladders was first presented in a 2015 article, “Bond Ladders and Rolling Yield Convergence.”
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
And at the address of Maxwell's former assistant, we found an empty house with builders' ladders and sacks of rubble outside.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
The porters’ ladders offered too much temptation to the penguins.
From "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater
BDC managers tell Barron’s that public debt is just one part of their financing structure and that their debt is laddered with staggered maturities.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
Allocating some money away from the stock market would make for more diversification — a set of bond funds or a laddered bond portfolio of bonds, for example.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 25, 2025
A dramatic musical score—like something out of a Marvel movie—plays loudly over clips of officers entering the windows of the garrisoned building, climbing on their laddered megatruck, and breaking the locks to the doors.
From Slate ● May 4, 2024
Mr. Johnson’s plan uses a two-step laddered continuing resolution to fund different portions of the government until Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 14, 2023
His hand on the thin and laddered ribs.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
We might start by adopting “relatively low-risk actions and laddering up boldness from there.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
When we talked two years ago before all this happened, the investment was really in gaming, and that was laddering into creators.
From The Verge ● Dec. 21, 2021
There are loads of ways to draw down your portfolio, including with annuities, bond laddering and simply selling off financial assets piecemeal.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2018
Build off your initial ideas by interacting with others, combining ideas and laddering up the benefits scale.
From Forbes ● Apr. 16, 2014
I was a scholarship boy at the time, busily laddering my way up the rungs of education.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
