ranking
Americanadjective
noun
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an act or instance of indicating relative standing.
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a list showing such standing.
adjective
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prominent; high ranking
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slang possessed of style; fashionable; exciting
noun
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.
Spelling Bee, launched in 2018 and adapted from a print puzzle, had already begun pulling in a younger audience with its mobile format and ranking system.
From Barron's • May 16, 2026
At the Culiacán airport, travelers can buy baseball caps with his 701 ranking in the Forbes list.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
With bookmakers ranking him as a 150/1 outsider to claim victory for the UK, it helps that Eurovision isn't a make-or-break moment for the 37-year-old.
From BBC • May 14, 2026
Researchers were able to pull adequate data from 35 states to compare reading scores, with California ranking 29th in academic growth.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
Pilots were at the top of that ranking system.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
