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rank

  1. (mathematics) The symbol for rank.

From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”).

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

  1. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
    1. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

      rank grass

      rank weeds

      • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

        The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

      1. Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.

        rank land

        • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

          fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw

      2. Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.

        • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

          The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple […]

    2. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
      1. Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.
        Synonyms: stinky, smelly, (UK) pongy

        Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?

      2. (informal) Gross, disgusting, foul.
  2. (intensifier, negative) complete, unmitigated, utter.
    Synonyms: thorough, virulent

    rank treason

    rank nonsense

    I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.

    • 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd”, in BBC:

      Chelsea remain rank outsiders to retain their crown and they still lie 12 points adrift of United, but Ancelotti will regard this as a performance that supports his insistence that they can still have a say when the major prizes are handed out this season.

  3. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious

strong in growth

having a very strong and bad odor

highly offensive; disgusting

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

  1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”).

Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). Doublet of ring and rink.

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

  2. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
    Antonym: file

    The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.

    • 1684, Richard Elton, The compleat body of the Art Military […] ‎[2], 2nd edition, page 196:

      The Musketeers being on both flancks, firſt firing let the Ranck ſtand, and fire every Ranck, paſſing through before his leader […]

    • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

      Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs […] .

  4. (chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).
    Antonym: file
  5. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
  6. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality.

    Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.

    The fancy hotel was of the first rank.

  8. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
  9. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.

    a membership drawn from the ranks of wealthy European businessmen

    • 2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer‎[3]:

      Earlier this month police in Norfolk were called after five hives thought to contain around 60,000 bees and £600 worth of honey were taken. [...] Suspicions among beekeepers that the culprits come from their own ranks were underlined by the fact that a bee smoker was left at the scene by someone who presumably knew that it could be used to calm the insects before taking them.

  11. A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.

    Private First Class (PFC) is the second-lowest rank in the Marines.

    He rose up through the ranks of the company, from mailroom clerk to CEO.

  12. (taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.

    Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

  13. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
  15. (linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
  16. (algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
  17. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.

row of people or things organized in a grid pattern

hierarchical level in an organization

level in a taxonomy system

dimensionality of an array or tensor

chess: one of the horizontal lines of squares

rank (third-person singular simple present ranks, present participle ranking, simple past and past participle ranked)

  1. To place abreast, or in a line.
  2. To have a ranking.

    Their defense ranked third in the league.

  3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.

    • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:

      Ranking all things under general and special heads.

    • 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC:

      Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.

    • 1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743:

      From time to time the coaches of the Lötschberg Railway itself, which in comfort and décor can rank with the finest in Europe today, travel far from the frontiers of Switzerland on through workings such as these.

  4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

From Middle Dutch ranc, from Old Dutch *ranc, from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.[1]

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankst)

  1. slender, svelte
Declension of rank
uninflected rank
inflected ranke
comparative ranker
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial rank ranker het rankst
het rankste
indefinite m./f. sing. ranke rankere rankste
n. sing. rank ranker rankste
plural ranke rankere rankste
definite ranke rankere rankste
partitive ranks rankers —

From Middle Dutch ranc, ranke, from Old Dutch *rank, from Frankish hranca.

rank f (plural ranken, diminutive rankje n)

  1. tendril, a thin winding stem
  2. name of various vines
  3. an object or ornamental pattern resembling a stem
  1. ^ J. de Vries & F. de Tollenaere, "Etymologisch Woordenboek", Uitgeverij Het Spectrum, Utrecht, 1986 (14de druk)

Borrowed from Middle Low German rank, ranc, from Old Saxon *rank, from Proto-West Germanic *rank.

rank (strong nominative masculine singular ranker, comparative ranker, superlative am ranksten)

  1. (poetic, dated, except in the phrase rank und schlank) lithe, lissome

Comparative forms of rank

Superlative forms of rank

rank

  1. singular imperative of ranken
  • “rank” in Duden online
  • “rank” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache