Word.ws English Dictionary

grades on a curve

grades on a curve is the third-person singular simple present indicative of grade on a curve.

Meaning of grade on a curve

Verb

grade on a curve (third-person singular simple present grades on a curve, present participle grading on a curve, simple past and past participle graded on a curve)

  1. To use a grading system based on the scale of performance of a group to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject; to curve a grade.
    • He asked the teacher to grade (the test) on a curve.
  2. (broadly) To compare the members of a set or group by using a relative scale, based on performance relative to other members.

Questions about grades on a curve

What is grades on a curve the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Grades on a curve is the third-person singular simple present indicative of grade on a curve.

Words near grades on a curve in the dictionary

  1. Graden
  2. Gradens
  3. grader
  4. graders
  5. grades
  6. grades on a curve
  7. gradeschool
  8. gradeschooler
  9. gradeschoolers
  10. gradewide
  11. gradge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grades on a curve (page history and authors); grade on a curve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “grades on a curve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grades_on_a_curve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.