rank vs stage

rank

verb
  • To place abreast, or in a line. 

  • To have a ranking. 

  • 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. 

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

  • 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. 

stage

verb
  • To place in position to prepare for use. 

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

  • To demonstrate in a deceptive manner. 

  • To orchestrate; to carry out. 

  • 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. 

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

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

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