Definitions for Rank
ræŋkrank

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:4.0 / 4 votes

1. ranknoun

   a row or line of people (especially soldiers or police) standing abreast of one another

   "the entrance was guarded by ranks of policemen"

2. ranknoun

   relative status

   "his salary was determined by his rank and seniority"

3. rank and file, ranknoun

   the ordinary members of an organization (such as the enlisted soldiers of an army)

   "the strike was supported by the union rank and file"; "he rose from the ranks to become a colonel"

4. social station, social status, social rank, ranknoun

   position in a social hierarchy

   "the British are more aware of social status than Americans are"

5. membership, rankadjective

   the body of members of an organization or group

   "they polled their membership"; "they found dissension in their own ranks"; "he joined the ranks of the unemployed"

6. rankadjective

   very fertile; producing profuse growth

   "rank earth"

7. rankadjective

   very offensive in smell or taste

   "a rank cigar"

8. crying(a), egregious, flagrant, glaring, gross, rankadjective

   conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible

   "a crying shame"; "an egregious lie"; "flagrant violation of human rights"; "a glaring error"; "gross ineptitude"; "gross injustice"; "rank treachery"

9. absolute, downright, out-and-out(a), rank(a), right-down, sheer(a)adjective

   complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers

   "absolute freedom"; "an absolute dimwit"; "a downright lie"; "out-and-out mayhem"; "an out-and-out lie"; "a rank outsider"; "many right-down vices"; "got the job through sheer persistence"; "sheer stupidity"

10. rankverb

    growing profusely

    "rank jungle vegetation"

11. rankverb

    take or have a position relative to others

    "This painting ranks among the best in the Western World"

12. rate, rank, range, order, grade, placeverb

    assign a rank or rating to

    "how would you rank these students?"; "The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide"

13. rank, outrankverb

    take precedence or surpass others in rank

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. RANKadjective

   Etymology: ranc , Saxon.

   1. High growing; strong; luxuriant.

   Down with the grasse,
   That groweth in shadow so ranke and so stout. Thomas Tusser.

   Is not thilk same goteheard proud,
   That sits in younder bank,
   Whose straying heard themselves shrowde
   Emong the bushes rank. Edmund Spenser.

   Who would be out, being before his beloved mistress?
   —— That should you, if I were your mistress, or I should think my honesty ranker than my wit. William Shakespeare.

   In which disguise,
   While other jests are something rank on foot,
   Her father hath commanded her to slip
   Away with Slender. William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor.

   Seven ears came up upon one stalk, rank and good. Gen.

   They fancy that the difference lies in the manner of appulse, one being made by a fuller or ranker appulse than the other. William Holder, Elements of Speech.

   The most plentiful season, that gives birth to the finest flowers, produces also the rankest weeds. Addison.

   2. Fruitful; bearing strong plants.

   Seven thousand broad-tail’d sheep graz’d on his downs;
   Three thousand camels his rank pastures fed. George Sandys.

   Where land is rank, ’tis not good to sow wheat after a fallow. John Mortimer, Husbandry.

   3. [ Rancidus, Lat.] Strong scented; rancid.

   Rank smelling rue, and cummin good for eyes. Edmund Spenser.

   In their thick breaths,
   Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded,
   And forc’d to drink their vapour. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

   The ewes, being rank,
   In the end of Autumn turned to the rams. William Shakespeare.

   The drying marshes such a stench convey,
   Such the rank steams of reeking Albula. Addison.

   Hircina, rank with sweat, presumes
   To censure Phillis for perfumes. Jonathan Swift, Miscellanies.

   4. High tasted; strong in quality.

   Such animals as feed upon flesh, because such kind of food is high and rank, qualify it; the one by swallowing the hair of the beasts they prey upon, the other by devouring some part of the feathers of the birds they gorge themselves with. John Ray, on the Creation.

   Divers sea fowl taste rank of the fish on which they feed. Boyle.

   5. Rampant; highgrown.

   For you, most wicked Sir, whom to call brother
   Would infect my mouth, I do forgive
   Thy rankest faults. William Shakespeare, Tempest.

   This Epiphanius cries out upon as rank idolatry, and the device of the devil, who always brought in idolatry under fair pretences. Edward Stillingfleet, Def. of Discourse on Roman Idol.

   ’Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul,
   The Romans call it stoicism. Joseph Addison, Cato.

   6. Gross; coarse.

   My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves name
   As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
   Before her troth-plight. William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale.

   This power of the people in Athens, claimed as the undoubted privilege of an Athenian born, was the rankest encroachment and the grossest degeneracy from the form Solon left. Jonathan Swift.

   7.The iron of a plane is set rank, when its edge stands so flat below the sole of the plane, that in working it will take off a thick shaving. Joseph Moxon Mechanical Exercises.

2. Ranknoun

   Etymology: rang, Fr.

   1. Line of men placed a-breast.

   Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
   In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,
   Which drizzled blood upon the capitol. William Shakespeare.

   I have seen the cannon,
   When it hath blown his ranks into the air. William Shakespeare.

   Is’t not pity,
   That we, the sons and children of this isle,
   Fill up her enemies ranks? William Shakespeare, King John.

   If you have a station in the file,
   And not in the worst rank of manhood, say it. William Shakespeare.

   2. A row.

   West of this place down in the neighbour bottom,
   The rank of osiers, by the murmuring stream,
   Left on your right hand brings you to the place. William Shakespeare.

   A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend
   Shade above shade, a woody theatre. John Milton.

   If she walk, in even ranks they stand,
   Like some well-marshall’d and obsequious band. Edmund Waller.

   He cou’d through ranks of ruin go,
   With storms above and rocks below. John Dryden, Horace.

   3. Range of subordination.

   The wisdom and goodness of the maker plainly appears in the parts of this stupendous fabrick, and the several degrees and ranks of creatures in it. John Locke.

   4. Class; order.

   The enchanting power of prosperity over private persons is remarkable in relation to great kingdoms, where all ranks and orders of men, being equally concerned in publick blessings, equally join in spreading the infection. Francis Atterbury.

   5. Degree of dignity.

   Her charms have made me man, her ravish’d love
   In rank shall place me with the bless’d above. Dryden.

   These all are virtues of a meaner rank,
   Perfections that are plac’d in bones and nerves. Addison.

   Lepidus’s house, which in his consulate was the finest in Rome, within thirty-five years was not in the hundredth rank. John Arbuthnot, on Coins.

   6. Dignity; high place: as, he is a man of rank.

3. To Rankverb

   Etymology: ranger, Fr. from the noun.

   1. To place a-breast.

   In view stood rank’d of seraphim another row. John Milton.

   2. To range in any particular class.

   If sour woe delights in fellowship,
   And needly will be rank’d with other griefs;
   Why follow’d not, when she said Tybalt’s dead,
   Thy father or thy mother. William Shakespeare.

   He was a man
   Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
   Himself with princes. William Shakespeare, Henry VIII.

   Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft. Decay of Piety.

   I have ranked this diversion of christian practice among the effects of our contentions. Decay of Piety.

   Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers, and the ancients made use of them as preceptors in musick and morality. , Notes on the Odyssey.

   3. To arrange methodically.

   Who now shall rear you to the sun, or rank
   Your tribes. John Milton.

   Ranking all things under general and special heads, renders the nature or uses of a thing more easy to be found out, when we seek in what rank of beings it lies. Isaac Watts, Logick.

4. To Rankverb

   To be ranged; to be placed.

   Let that one article rank with the rest;
   And thereupon give me your daughter. William Shakespeare.

   From straggling mountaineers, for publick good,
   To rank in tribes, and quit the savage wood. Nahum Tate.

WikipediaRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. Rank

   Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as:

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. rank

   Rank generally refers to a specific position, level, grade, or status within a hierarchy or ordering system. It is often used to indicate someone's standing in social, military, or professional spheres. It can also refer to the relative importance, superiority or quality of someone or something. Additionally, in mathematics, rank can describe the dimensions or properties of a matrix or system.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Rank

   luxuriant in growth; of vigorous growth; exuberant; grown to immoderate height; as, rank grass; rank weeds

2. Rank

   raised to a high degree; violent; extreme; gross; utter; as, rank heresy

3. Rank

   causing vigorous growth; producing luxuriantly; very rich and fertile; as, rank land

4. Rank

   strong-scented; rancid; musty; as, oil of a rank smell; rank-smelling rue

5. Rank

   strong to the taste

6. Rank

   inflamed with venereal appetite

7. Rankadverb

   rankly; stoutly; violently

8. Rank

   a row or line; a range; an order; a tier; as, a rank of osiers

9. Rank

   a line of soldiers ranged side by side; -- opposed to file. See 1st File, 1 (a)

10. Rank

    grade of official standing, as in the army, navy, or nobility; as, the rank of general; the rank of admiral

11. Rank

    an aggregate of individuals classed together; a permanent social class; an order; a division; as, ranks and orders of men; the highest and the lowest ranks of men, or of other intelligent beings

12. Rank

    degree of dignity, eminence, or excellence; position in civil or social life; station; degree; grade; as, a writer of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank

13. Rank

    elevated grade or standing; high degree; high social position; distinction; eminence; as, a man of rank

14. Rankverb

    to place abreast, or in a line

15. Rankverb

    to range in a particular class, order, or division; to class; also, to dispose methodically; to place in suitable classes or order; to classify

16. Rankverb

    to take rank of; to outrank

17. Rankverb

    to be ranged; to be set or disposed, as in a particular degree, class, order, or division

18. Rankverb

    to have a certain grade or degree of elevation in the orders of civil or military life; to have a certain degree of esteem or consideration; as, he ranks with the first class of poets; he ranks high in public estimation

19. Etymology: [OE. renk, reng, OF. renc, F. rang, fr. OHG. hring a circle, a circular row, G. ring. See Ring, and cf. Range, n. & v.]

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. RANK

   Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor κ B, also known as TRANCE Receptor, is a type I membrane protein that is expressed on the surface of osteoclasts and is involved in their activation upon ligand binding. RANK is also expressed on dendritic cells and facilitates immune signaling. RANKL is found on the surface of stromal cells, osteoblasts, and T cells.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Rank

   rangk, n. a row or line, esp. of soldiers standing side by side: class or order: grade or degree: station: high social position or standing.—v.t. to place in a line: to range in a particular class: to place methodically: to take rank over.—v.i. to be placed in a rank or class: to have a certain degree of distinction: to be admitted as a claim against the property of a bankrupt.—n. Rank′er, one who arranges or disposes in ranks: an officer who has risen from the ranks.—Rank and file, the whole body of common soldiers.—Take rank of, to have the right to take a higher place than; Take rank with, to take the same rank as; The ranks, the order of common soldiers. [O. Fr. renc (Fr. rang)—Old High Ger. hring or hrinc, Eng. ring.]

2. Rank

   rangk, adj. growing high and luxuriantly: coarse from excessive growth: raised to a high degree: excessive: very fertile: strong-scented: strong-tasted: rancid: utter, as rank nonsense: coarse: indecent: (Shak.) ruttish: (slang) eager: (law) excessive: (mech.) cutting deeply.—adv. (Spens.) rankly, fiercely.—v.i. Rank′le, to be inflamed: to fester: to be a source of disquietude or excitement: to rage.—v.t. to irritate.—adv. Rank′ly, offensively: to an inordinate degree.—n. Rank′ness, exuberant growth: (Shak.) insolence.—adjs. Rank′-rī′ding, hard-riding; Rank′-scent′ed (Shak.), strong-scented: rancid. [A.S. ranc, fruitful, rank; Ice. rakkr, bold, Dan. rank, lank, slender.]

Dictionary of Nautical TermsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. rank

   Degree of dignity; officers of the navy rank with those of the army according to the following table:-- 1. The Admirals of the Fleet rank with Field-marshals. 2. Admirals " Generals. 3. Vice-admirals " Lieutenant-generals. 4. Rear-admirals " Major-generals. 5. Captains of the Fleet } 6. Commodores } " Brigadier-generals. 7. Captains of 3 years " Colonels. 8. Captains under 3 years " Lieutenant-colonels. 9. Commanders next to Do. 10. Lieutenants, 8 years rank with Majors. 11. Lieutenants, under 8 years " Captains. 12. Sub-lieutenants " Lieutenants. 13. Midshipmen " Ensigns. Also, the order or straight line made by men drawn up side by side.

Military Dictionary and GazetteerRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. rank

   Range of subordination, degree of authority. The relative situations which officers hold with respect to each other, or to military things in general. Questions as to the positive or relative rank of officers may often be of the greatest importance at law, in consequence of the rule, that every person who justifies his own acts on the ground of obedience to superior authority must establish, by clear evidence, the sufficiency of the authority on which he so relies. There may also be many occasions on which the propriety of an officer’s assumption of command, or his exercise of particular functions, or his right to share with a particular class of officers in prize-money, bounties, grants, and other allowances, may depend on the correctness of the view taken by himself or others of his rights to a specific rank or command; and an error in this respect may expose him to personal loss and damage in suits before the civil tribunals. The regulation of military rank is vested absolutely in Congress, which confers or varies it at pleasure. The will of Congress in this respect is signified by the creation of different grades of rank; by making rules of appointment and promotion; by other rules of government and regulation; or is by fair deduction to be inferred from the nature of the functions assigned to each officer; for every man who is intrusted with an employment is presumed to be invested with all the powers necessary for the effective discharge of the duties annexed to his office. Rank and grade are synonymous, and in their military acceptation indicate rights, powers, and duties, determined by laws, creating the different degrees of rank, and specifying fixed forms for passing from grade to grade and when rank in one body shall give command in another body; and also when rank in the army at large shall not be exercised. Rank is a right of which an officer cannot be deprived, except through forms prescribed by law. When an officer is on duty, the rank itself indicates his relative position to other officers of the body in which it is created. It is not, however, a perpetual right to exercise command, because the President may, under the 62d article of war, at any time relieve an officer from duty; or an officer may be so relieved by arrest duly made according to law; or by inability to perform duty from sickness, or by being placed by competent authority on some other duty. But whenever an officer is on duty his rank indicates his command.

2. rank

   A line of soldiers; a row of troops reckoned from side to side, or in breadth;—opposed to file. The ranks, the order of common soldiers; as, to reduce a non-commissioned officer to the ranks. To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. To take rank of, to enjoy precedence over, or to have the right of taking a higher place than.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. RANK

   What does RANK stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the RANK acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. RANK

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Rank is ranked #9716 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Rank surname appeared 3,339 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Rank.
   
   94.1% or 3,142 total occurrences were White.
   2.1% or 70 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   1.5% or 50 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   1% or 34 total occurrences were Asian.
   0.6% or 23 total occurrences were Black.
   0.6% or 20 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

1. • Be
   • Force
   • Line
   • Military
   • Status
   • Surpass

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Rank' in Nouns Frequency: #1277

Anagrams for Rank »

1. knar

2. nark

3. kran

How to pronounce Rank?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Rank in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Rank in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Rank in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of Rank in a Sentence

1. William Bratton:

   They really do feel under attack, rank-and-file officers and much of American police leadership, that they feel they’re under attack from the federal government at the highest levels, so that’s something we need to understand also, this sense of perception that becomes a reality.

2. Ed Gonzalez:

   [ F ] rankly, his history with ICE, both his statements and his actions regarding the agency he's nominated lead, are deeply concerning to me and I think would be by the rank-and-file members of ICE.

3. Ryan Pack:

   It's your moral duty to always be a good person, but it's not always your fault what your status, what your rank in life is.

4. Mike Pence:

   It's astonishing to think that the party of Harry Truman, which did so much to create the state of Israel, has been co-opted by people who promote rank anti-Semitic rhetoric and work to undermine the broad American consensus of support for Israel.

5. Pentagon Force Protection Agency:

   As a Pentagon Police officer, he took our mission of ‘protecting those who protect our nation’ to heart, he was promoted twice and attained the rank of Senior Officer in 2020. A gregarious officer, he was well-liked and respected by his fellow officers.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Rank
2. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Rank
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Rank
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Rank
7. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Rank
8. ^ Dictionary of Nautical Terms
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26000/pg26000-images.html#:~:text=Rank
9. ^ Military Dictionary and Gazetteer
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59563/pg59563-images.html
10. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
    https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html