grade vs stage

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. 

stage

noun
  • A level; one of the sequential areas making up the game. 

  • A platform; a surface, generally elevated, upon which show performances or other public events are given. 

  • One of the portions of a device (such as a rocket or thermonuclear weapon) which are used or activated in a particular order, one after another. 

  • A floor or storey of a house. 

  • The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc. 

  • A stagecoach, an enclosed horsedrawn carriage used to carry passengers. 

  • A place where anything is publicly exhibited, or a remarkable affair occurs; the scene. 

  • The succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic time scale. 

  • A phase. 

  • The place on a microscope where the slide is located for viewing. 

  • An internship. 

  • A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf. 

  • A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, etc.; scaffolding; staging. 

verb
  • To produce on a stage, to perform a play. 

  • To demonstrate in a deceptive manner. 

  • To orchestrate; to carry out. 

  • To place in position to prepare for use. 

  • To determine what stage (a disease, etc.) has progressed to 

  • To jettison a spent stage of a multistage rocket or other launch vehicle and light the engine(s) of the stage above it. 

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