grade vs rank

grade

noun
  • A degree or level of something; a position within a scale; a degree of quality. 

  • A slope (up or down) of a roadway or other passage 

  • Performance on a test or other evaluation(s), expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a score. 

  • An area that has been flattened by a grader (construction machine). 

  • In a linear system of divisors on an n-dimensional variety, the number of free intersection points of n generic divisors. 

  • A harsh scraping or cutting; a grating. 

  • A rating. 

  • A taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity that is not a clade. 

  • A level of primary and secondary education. 

  • A gradian. 

  • An eyeglass prescription. 

  • The degree of malignity of a tumor expressed on a scale. 

  • Degree (any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb). 

  • The level of the ground. 

  • A student of a particular grade (used with the grade level). 

verb
  • To describe, modify or inflect so as to classify as to degree. 

  • To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another. 

  • To pass from one school grade into the next. 

  • To assign scores to the components of an academic test, or to overall academic performance. 

  • To flatten, level, or smooth a large surface, especially with a grader. 

  • To remove or trim part of a seam allowance from a finished seam so as to reduce bulk and make the finished piece more even when turned right side out. 

  • To apply classifying labels to data (typically by a manual rather than automatic process). 

  • To organize in grades. 

rank

noun
  • The level of one's position in a class-based society. 

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

  • One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number). 

  • The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix. 

  • The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D). 

  • The size of any basis of a given matroid. 

  • One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality. 

  • The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor. 

  • In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal. 

  • A level in a scientific taxonomy system. 

  • A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation. 

  • A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers. 

verb
  • To have a ranking. 

  • To place abreast, or in a line. 

  • To take rank of; to outrank. 

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

adj
  • Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross. 

  • Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence). 

  • Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome. 

  • Having a very strong and bad taste or odor. 

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

  • Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric. 

  • Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter (used of negative things). 

  • Gross, disgusting. 

How often have the words grade and rank occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )