Grade

How to spell grade

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce grade

What does grade mean?

1. nounA particular level of quality, rank, or value within a graded scale.
2. verbTo assess, rank, or sort something according to a standard of quality.
3. nounA year or level of schooling, as used in the American education system.
4. nounThe degree of slope or incline of a road, track, or surface.

Grade in a sentence

• noun

  The timber was sold at a lower grade than promised.

• verb

  The teacher had to grade forty essays over the weekend.

• noun

  Her son is starting fourth grade this autumn.

• noun

  The lorry struggled up the steep grade of the mountain pass.

• noun

  She reached the top pay grade after a decade of service.

• verb

  Inspectors grade each batch of eggs by size and quality.

Where does grade come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin gradus, which literally meant a 'step' or 'pace', and by extension a 'stage' or 'degree' along a sequence; it is the same root that gives us 'gradual', 'progress', and 'degree'. The underlying verb gradi meant 'to step' or 'to walk', so the idea of moving forward one measured step at a time runs through the whole family. English took 'grade' directly from this Latin source (helped by the French grade for a military rank) in the early 1500s, first meaning a degree or stage of rank or quality. From there it broadened to cover school marks, levels of goods, and even the slope of a road, since a gradient is literally a series of steps in height. The spelling stays simple and regular, but its relatives 'gradient' and 'gradual' keep the original 'step' sense in plain view.

How the word is built

• grad (from Latin gradus: step, degree)
• -e (English spelling ending)