Word.ws English Dictionary

rank

/ˈɹæŋk//ˈɹeɪ̯ŋk/

rank adjective: strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

  1. (obsolete) Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
    • rank grass
    • rank weeds
  2. (obsolete) Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
    • rank land
    • fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
  3. (obsolete) Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
    • The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple […]1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I
  4. (obsolete) Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
  5. (informal, obsolete) Gross, disgusting, foul.
  6. (obsolete) Headstrong; difficult to control.
    • If Safford happens to be driving a "rank" horse, one that insists on getting away fast, he goes along with the rest, […]1949, The New Yorker (volume 25, part 3, page 46)
  7. Having a very strong, bad taste or odor.
    • Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?
    • Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.1661, Robert Boyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    stinky, smelly, pongy, gamy
  8. (emphatic, intensifier, negative) complete, unmitigated, utter.
    • rank treason
    • rank nonsense
    Synonyms:
    thorough, virulent
  9. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious
    • the ewes being rank,
      In end of autumn turned to the ramsc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Adverb

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

  1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
    • The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke, / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare […].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield...

Noun

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

  1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
    • The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.
    • The Musketeers being on both flancks, firſt firing let the Ranck ſtand, and fire every Ranck, paſſing through before his leader[…]1684, Richard Elton, The compleat body of the Art Military […] , 2nd edition, page 196
    Antonyms:
    file
  2. One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).
    Antonyms:
    file
  3. The value of a playing card.
    • The ranks are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace.
  4. In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
  5. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, popularity, or quality.
    • Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.
    • The fancy hotel was of the first rank.
  6. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
    Synonyms:
    condition
  7. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.
    • a membership drawn from the ranks of wealthy European businessmen
    • Earlier this month police in Norfolk were called after five hives thought to contain around 60,000 bees and £600 worth of honey were taken. [...] Suspicions among beekeepers that the culprits come from their own ranks were underlined by the fact that a bee smoker was left at the scene by someone...2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer
  8. A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.
    • Private First Class (PFC) is the second-lowest rank in the Marines.
    • He rose up through the ranks of the company, from mailroom clerk to CEO.
  9. A level in a scientific taxonomy system.
    • Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.
  10. The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
  11. The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
  12. The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
  13. The size of any basis of a given matroid.

Verb

rank (third-person singular simple present ranks, present participle ranking, simple past and past participle ranked)

  1. (transitive) To place abreast or in a line.
    • She [Diana] hath ſent (to plague vs) a huge ſauadge Boare, / Of an vn-meaſured height and magnitude. / […] / His briſtles poynted like a range of pikes / Ranck't on his backe: his foame ſnovves vvhere he feeds / His tuskes are like the Indian Oliphants.1613, Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, Act II, signature [C4], verso
  2. (intransitive) To have a ranking.
    • Their defense ranked third in the league.
    • I vex my heart with fancies dim: / ⁠He still outstript me in the race; / ⁠It was but unity of place / That made me dream I rank’d with him.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 64
  3. (transitive) To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
    • Ranking all things under general and special heads.1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […]...
    • Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    place
  4. (US, transitive) To take the rank of; to outrank.

Proper noun capitalized: Rank

Rank

  1. A surname.

rank meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rank in Hindi

row of people or things organized in a grid pattern
श्रेणीबद्ध śreṇībaddh
chess: one of the horizontal lines of squares
रेखा rekhā, लक़ीर laqīr
position based on a shared property
श्रेणी śreṇī
hierarchical level in an organization
पद pad, श्रेणी śreṇī

rank in Tamil

position based on a shared property
தரவரிசை taravaricai

rank in Marathi

row of people or things organized in a grid pattern
श्रेणीबद्ध śreṇībaddha
chess: one of the horizontal lines of squares
रेखा rekhā
position based on a shared property
श्रेणी śreṇī
to have a ranking
श्रेणीबद्ध śreṇībaddha

rank in Urdu

rank, status, station
رتبہ rutba
rank; dignity
تشریف taśrīf
More languagesFewer languages
rank in Bengali
পদ pod
rank in Telugu
దర్జా darjā, స్థానము sthānamu
rank in Malayalam
റാങ്ക് ṟāṅkŭ, പദവി padavi
rank in Kannada
ಸಾಲು, ಮಟ್ಟ, ಶ್ರೇಯಾಂಕ, ಪದವಿ
rank in Punjabi
ਰੁਤਬਾ rutbā, ਮਨਸਬ mansab, ਓਹਦਾ ohadā
rank in Gujarati
દરજ્જો darajjo
rank in Odia
ଶ୍ରେଣୀବଦ୍ଧ śreṇibaddha, ରେଖା rekhā, ଶ୍ରେଣୀ śreṇi
rank in Sanskrit
श्रेणीबद्ध śreṇībaddha, रेखा rekhā, श्रेणी śreṇī
rank in Assamese
নম্বৰ nombor, নাম্বাৰ nambar
rank in Nepali
श्रेणीबद्ध śreṇībaddha, रेखा rekhā, श्रेणी śreṇī
rank in Arabic
رُتْبَة rutba
rank in Malay
pangkat
rank in Persian
رده rade, رتبه rotbe
rank in Thai
ยศ yót
rank in Vietnamese
hàng, cấp, hàm

Examples of rank in a sentence

  • I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.
  • And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 41:5:
  • The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds.1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
  • England's domination of the first half was almost total, but they somehow contrived to allow Tunisia to raise themselves off the floor by virtue of rank carelessness from [Gareth] Southgate's side.2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2019:
  • Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs[…].1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with rank

Synonyms of rank

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of rank

Forms of rank

Adjective
comparativeranker
comparativemore rank
superlativerankest
superlativemost rank
alternative form (obsolete)ranck
Adverb
comparativemore rank
superlativemost rank
Noun
pluralranks
Verb
third-person singular presentranks
present participleranking
past participleranked
pastranked

Past tense of rank: ranked

Plural of rank: ranks

Origin of rank

From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”). The sense referring to taste or odor is possibly influenced by rancor.

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”). Displaced native Old English hād (“rank, status”). Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). Doublet of ring and rink.

Words formed from rank

Phrases with rank

Words that rhyme with rank

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rank

What does rank mean?
Rank means strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
What is rank in Hindi?
Rank in Hindi is श्रेणीबद्ध (śreṇībaddh), श्रेणी (śreṇī), रेखा (rekhā). See Rank meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rank in a sentence?
I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.
What part of speech is rank?
Rank can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rank?
Rank is pronounced /ˈɹæŋk/.

Words near rank in the dictionary

  1. Ranjans
  2. ranjau
  3. ranjaus
  4. ranjow
  5. ranjows
  6. rank
  7. rank and file
  8. rank and yank
  9. rank badge
  10. rank badges
  11. rank of apparition

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rank (page history and authors); Rank (page history and authors); تشریف (Urdu) (page history and authors); దర్జా (Telugu) (page history and authors); rank (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਓਹਦਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); દરજ્જો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); নম্বৰ (Assamese) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rank.ogg.

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