Range

How to spell range

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce range

What does range mean?

1. nounThe full extent or spread between an upper and a lower limit, or the variety covered.
2. verbTo vary between specified limits, or to extend over an area.
3. nounA connected line of mountains or hills.
4. nounA large kitchen stove with ovens and burners.

Range in a sentence

• noun

  The shop stocks a wide range of office supplies.

• verb

  Ticket prices can range from ten to fifty pounds.

• noun

  The hikers admired the snow-capped mountain range at dawn.

• noun

  She simmered the sauce on the back burner of the range.

• noun

  Salaries in this range depend on experience and location.

• verb

  Their interests range across science, music, and travel.

Where does range come from?

Language of origin: French

The word range comes from the Old French verb rangier (also spelled renger), meaning 'to set in a row' or 'to arrange in a line', which was built on the noun rang, meaning 'row, rank, or line'. That noun in turn traces back to a Frankish (Germanic) word hring, meaning 'ring' or 'circle', the same ancient root that gives us the English word 'ring'. English took the word in during the 1200s and 1300s, first with the sense of a line or row of things, and from that idea of a span between two points grew the modern meanings: the distance something can reach, the spread between a lowest and highest figure, and a connected line of mountains. The kitchen 'range' (the cooking stove) reflects the older notion of a row, since fires and pots were once set out in a line. Because the spelling is phonetically regular and short, range rarely trips up adult writers.

How the word is built

• rang- (from Old French rang: row, line)
• -e