rank

Translingual

Symbol

rank

1. (mathematics) The symbol for rank.

English

Alternative forms

• ranck (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹæŋk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋk

Etymology 1

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”).

Adjective

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

1. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
   1. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

      rank grass

      rank weeds

      • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Genesis 41:5:

        And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.

      • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

        The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

      1. Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.

         rank land

         • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. , 2nd edition, London: J H for H Mortlock , and J Robinson , published 1708, →OCLC:

           fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw

      2. Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
         • 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:

           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 […]

   2. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
      1. Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

         Synonyms: stinky, smelly, (UK) pongy

         Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?

         • 1661, Robert Boyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, , London: J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, , →OCLC:

           Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.

      2. (informal) Gross, disgusting, foul.
2. (intensifier, negative) complete, unmitigated, utter.

   Synonyms: thorough, virulent

   rank treason

   rank nonsense

   I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.

   • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 21 April 2019:

     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.

   • 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd”, in BBC:

     Chelsea remain rank outsiders to retain their crown and they still lie 12 points adrift of United, but Ancelotti will regard this as a performance that supports his insistence that they can still have a say when the major prizes are handed out this season.

3. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     the ewes being rank,
     In end of autumn turned to the rams

Derived terms

• outrank
• ranken
• rankful

Translations

Adverb

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke, / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare […] .

   • 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 Hatfield, for I Iaggard and M Lownes, →OCLC:

     That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.

Etymology 2

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”).

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.

Noun

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.

   Antonym: file

   The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.

   • 1684, Richard Elton, The compleat body of the Art Military ‎, 2nd edition, page 196:

     The Musketeers being on both flancks, firſt firing let the Ranck ſtand, and fire every Ranck, paſſing through before his leader […]

   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs […] .

2. (chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).

   Antonym: file

3. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
4. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, 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.
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

   • 2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer‎:

     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 who presumably knew that it could be used to calm the insects before taking them.

9. 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.

10. (taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.

    Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

11. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
13. (linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
14. (algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
15. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

1. To place abreast, or in a line.
2. To have a ranking.

   Their defense ranked third in the league.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XLI, page 64:

     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.

3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
   • 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, , published 1726, →OCLC:

     Ranking all things under general and special heads.

   • 1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, and Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

   • 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. , London: R. Norton for T. Garthwait, , →OCLC:

     Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.

   • 1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743:

     From time to time the coaches of the Lötschberg Railway itself, which in comfort and décor can rank with the finest in Europe today, travel far from the frontiers of Switzerland on through workings such as these.

4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

Derived terms

• misrank
• outrank

Translations

References

• “rank”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “rank”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• ARNK, Karn, karn, knar, kran, nark

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɑŋk/
• Hyphenation: rank
• Rhymes: -ɑŋk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ranc, from Old Dutch *ranc, from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankst)

1. slender, svelte

Inflection

Derived terms

• rankgebouwd

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch ranc, ranke, from Old Dutch *rank, from Frankish hranca.

Noun

rank f (plural ranken, diminutive rankje n)

1. tendril, a thin winding stem
2. name of various vines
3. an object or ornamental pattern resembling a stem

Derived terms

• bosrank
• hechtrank
• ranken (verb)
• rankerig
• wijnrank

References

Anagrams

• karn

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German rank, ranc, from Old Saxon *rank, from Proto-West Germanic *rank.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁaŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

rank (strong nominative masculine singular ranker, comparative ranker, superlative am ranksten)

1. (poetic, dated, except in the phrase rank und schlank) lithe, lissome

Declension

Related terms

• rahn

Verb

rank

1. singular imperative of ranken

Further reading

• “rank” in Duden online
• “rank” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache