Grading

How to spell grading

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce grading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does grading mean?

1. nounThe act of assessing and assigning marks or scores to work, often according to set standards.
2. nounThe levelling or shaping of ground to a planned slope before building a road or surface.
3. nounThe process of sorting goods or produce into categories by size, quality, or value.

Grading in a sentence

• The teacher spent the weekend grading the final exam papers.

• The crew finished grading the site before pouring the foundation.

• The grading of the apples separates the premium fruit from the rest.

• Consistent grading across all classes keeps the results fair.

• Proper grading of the driveway lets rainwater drain away from the house.

• Strict grading of the wool determines the price each fleece fetches.

Where does grading come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin gradus, meaning a step, a pace, or a degree on a scale, which itself came from the verb gradi, 'to walk or step'. English took 'grade' from the French grade in the early 1500s, originally meaning a degree or stage in a sequence, and the same gradus root gave us a whole family of step words such as 'gradual', 'graduate', and 'gradient'. By the 1800s 'grade' had become a verb meaning to sort things by rank or quality, and in American usage it also meant to level a road or surface to a smooth slope. 'Grading' is simply that verb with the '-ing' ending, used both as the act of marking schoolwork and the act of shaping land. Because the root literally means 'step', it helps to remember that every grading process arranges things step by step, and the single 'd' before '-ing' reflects the plain English habit of just adding the suffix to 'grade' after dropping its silent 'e'.

How the word is built

• grade (from Latin gradus: step, degree)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)