gradenoun/ɡɹeɪd/

• 1

  A rating.

  • This fine-grade coin from 1837 is worth a good amount.
  • prime grade beef
• 2

  Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score.

  • He got a good grade on the test.
  • I gave him a good grade for effort.
• 3

  A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality.

  • There are a lot of varieties of diatomaceous earth, so when you are shopping, be sure to get the right stuff! Make sure that you get food grade diatomaceous earth. Some people make 3% of the food they eat be diatomaceous earth.
• 4

  human-scienceslinguisticssciencesDegree (any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb).

• 5

  A slope (up or down) of a roadway or other passage

  • The grade of this hill is more than 5 percent.
  • The incline can be altered to any grade so as to suit the weight of the door or gate to which the butt is attached.
• 6

  educationA level of primary and secondary education.

  • Clancy is entering the fifth grade this year.
  • Clancy starts grade five this year.
• 7

  educationA student of a particular grade (used with the grade level).

  • The grade fives are on a field trip.
• 8

  An area that has been flattened by a grader (construction machine).

gradeverb/ɡɹeɪd/

• 1

  To assign scores to the components of an academic test, or to overall academic performance.

• 2

  To organize in grades.

  • a graded reader
• 3

  To flatten, level, or smooth a large surface, especially with a grader.

  • to grade land before building on it
  • The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.
• 4

  businessmanufacturingsewingTo remove or trim part of a seam allowance from a finished seam so as to reduce bulk and make the finished piece more even when turned right side out.

• 5

  To increase or decrease the dimensions of a garment pattern from the initial base size in such a way that the overall proportions of the silhouette are maintained across all sizes.

• 6

  To apply classifying labels to data (typically by a manual rather than automatic process).

  • Brain scans were graded on a five-point scale of atrophy.
• 7

  human-scienceslinguisticssciencesTo describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree.

  • He has rightly observed that while -ísimo superlatives are typically prenominal, adjectives graded with the intensifier muy "very" are characteristically postnominal.
  • Adjectives graded for comparative and superlative degree can function both attributively and predicatively. Most descriptive adjectives are gradable: As modifiers of a noun Have you got a larger size? […]
• 8

  To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.

  • And there were circles even beyond these – […] humanity grading and drifting beyond the educated vision, until no earthly invitation can embrace it.