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PlainSpell

grade

[ɡɹeɪd]noun, verb

grade is spelled G-R-A-D-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 63 times per million words in written English, the 1,668th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, grade means “A rating” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of grade is grades.

How many letters and syllables are in grade?

Letters5: G-R-A-D-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing63 times per million words; the 1,668th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is grade?

Grade appears 63 times per million words in written English, the 1,668th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce grade?

  • /ɡɹeɪd/
  • US [ɡɹeɪd]
  • British [ɡɹɛjd]

Grade has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-grade.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with grade?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as grade.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: radge.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of grade

  • grades plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • grading participle, present
  • graded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does grade mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A rating.

    This fine-grade coin from 1837 is worth a good amount.

  2. 2

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

    He got a good grade on the test.

  3. 3

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

  4. 4

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

  5. 5

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

    The grade of this hill is more than 5 percent.

  6. 6

    CanadaUSA level of primary and secondary education.

    Clancy is entering the fifth grade this year.

  7. 7

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

    The grade fives are on a field trip.

  8. 8

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

verb

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    To organize in grades.

    a graded reader

  3. 3

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

    to grade land before building on it

  4. 4

    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.

  5. 5

    To increase or decrease the dimensions of a garment pattern from the initial base size in such a way that the overall proportions of the silhouette are maintained across all sizes.

  6. 6

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

    Brain scans were graded on a five-point scale of atrophy.

  7. 7

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

  8. 8

    To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Grade in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmention (rating), note (performance expressed by a number, letter, or…), pente (slope of a roadway or other passage), année, classe, niveau (level of pre-collegiate education)
GermanNote (rating), Zensur (performance expressed by a number, letter, or…), Klasse (level of pre-collegiate education), Grad, Sorte (degree or level of something), benoten (to assign scores)
Portuguesenota, avaliação (rating), conceito (performance expressed by a number, letter, or…), desnível (slope of a roadway or other passage), grau (degree or level of something), avaliar (to assign scores)
Spanishpuntuación (rating), nota, calificación (performance expressed by a number, letter, or…), desnivel (slope of a roadway or other passage), grado (level of pre-collegiate education), nivel (graded area)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does grade come from?

Borrowed from Middle French grade (“a grade, degree”), from Latin gradus (“a step, pace, degree”), from Proto-Italic *graðus, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰradʰ-, *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). Doublet of gradus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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