- present participle of rank.
ranking
Americanadjective
noun
-
rankings
plural
-
an act or instance of indicating relative standing.
-
a list showing such standing.
adjective
-
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:
Year: 2022 Compiled by: Dan Kois and Slate Staff Of note: Accompanied by several supplemental essays, including a ranking by Chris Molanphy of “The Top 5 Mob Movie Deaths of All Time.”
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026
But, playing in his first ranking final, Yuan then reeled off three frames in a row.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The Angels are also among that group, ranking No. 15 at $179.8, not enough to keep them from losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
The U.A.E. led the ranking with 73.3%, followed by Singapore, 64.3%, and Ireland, France and Norway, all in the 49% range.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Far from being modern breadbaskets, they include areas ranking today as somewhat dry or ecologically degraded: Iraq and Iran, Mexico, the Andes, parts of China, and Africa’s Sahel zone.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Third-ranked Zverev had 5,110 points - closer numerically to the 2,221st player in the rankings than the top two.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
The puzzling thing about Saturday’s meltdown wasn’t simply that the No. 1 team in the nation lost to a .500 team that had dropped out of the Top 25 rankings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
As such, some exclusions were necessary to make this List of Lists work, including year-specific rankings, gift ideas, and stuff that’s simply far too outdated.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026
"To be honest I was a little bit surprised but if you see the rankings, the girls ranked higher than me have either a fight booked or they have just fought," said Cong.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 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.
