English
range
see also: Range
Etymology

From Middle English rengen, from Old French rengier, from the noun renc, reng, ranc, rang ("a rank, row"), from Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɹeɪnd͡ʒ/
Noun

range (plural ranges)

  1. A line or series of mountains, buildings, etc.
  2. A fireplace; a fire or other cooking apparatus; now specifically, a large cooking stove with many hotplates.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, page 281 ↗:
      Therein an hundred raunges weren pight, / And hundred fournaces all burning bright; / By euery fournace many feendes did byde, / Deformed creatures, horrible in ſight, / And euery feend his buſie paines applyde, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde.
    • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “[A Supplement of Fables […].] Fab[le] CCCCXXXVIII. A Fool and a Hot Iron.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC ↗, page 415 ↗:
      There was juſt ſuch another Innocent as this, in my Fathers Family : He did the Courſe Work in the Kitchin, and was bid at his firſt Coming to take off the Range, and let down the Cynders before he went to Bed.
  3. Selection, array.
    We sell a wide range of cars.
  4. An area for practicing shooting at targets.
  5. An area for military training or equipment testing.
    Synonyms: base, training area, training ground
  6. The distance from a person or sensor to an object, target, emanation, or event.
    Synonyms: distance, radius
    We could see the ship at a range of five miles.
    One can use the speed of sound to estimate the range of a lightning flash.
  7. The maximum distance or reach of capability (of a weapon, radio, detector, etc.).
    This missile's range is 500 kilometres.
  8. The distance a vehicle (e.g., a car, bicycle, lorry, or aircraft) can travel without refueling.
    This aircraft's range is 15 000 kilometres.
  9. An area of open, often unfenced, grazing land.
  10. The extent or space taken in by anything excursive; compass or extent of excursion; reach; scope.
  11. (mathematics) The set of values (points) which a function can obtain.
    Antonyms: domain
  12. (statistics) The length of the smallest interval which contains all the data in a sample; the difference between the largest and smallest observations in the sample.
  13. (sports, baseball) The defensive area that a player can cover.
    Jones has good range for a big man.
  14. (music) The scale of all the tones a voice or an instrument can produce.
    Synonyms: compass
  15. (ecology) The geographical area or zone where a species is normally naturally found.
  16. (programming) A sequential list of values specified by an iterator.
    std::for_each  calls the given function on each value in the input range.
  17. An aggregate of individuals in one rank or degree; an order; a class.
    • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC ↗:
      The next Range of Beings above him are the pure and immaterial Intelligences , the next below him is the sensible Nature.
  18. (obsolete) The step of a ladder; a rung.
    • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC ↗:
      the first range of that ladder
  19. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A bolting sieve to sift meal.
  20. A wandering or roving; a going to and fro; an excursion; a ramble; an expedition.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
      , "Taking Pleasure in Other Men's Sins"
      He may take a range all the world over.
  21. (US, historical) In the public land system, a row or line of townships lying between two succession meridian lines six miles apart.
  22. The variety of roles that an actor can play in a satisfactory way.
    By playing in comedies as well as in dramas he has proved his range as an actor.
    By playing in comedies as well as in dramas he has proved his acting range.
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range (ranges, present participle ranging; simple past and past participle ranged)

  1. (intransitive) To travel over (an area, etc); to roam, wander. [from 15th c.]
  2. (transitive) To rove over or through.
    to range the fields
    • 1713, John Gay, “Rural Sports. A Georgic. Inscribed to Mr. [Alexander] Pope.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], and Bernard Lintot, […], published 1720, →OCLC ↗, page 21 ↗, lines 345–346:
      Novv to the copſe thy leſſer ſpaniel take, / Teach him to range the ditch, and force the brake; […]
  3. (obsolete, intransitive) To exercise the power of something over something else; to cause to submit to, over. [16th]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
      The soule is variable in all manner of formes, and rangeth to her selfe, and to her estate, whatsoever it be, the senses of the body, and all other accidents.
  4. (transitive) To bring (something) into a specified position or relationship (especially, of opposition) with something else. [from 16th c.]
    • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “chapter 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗:
      At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots were needed no longer. The stout sail-boat that had accompanied us began ranging alongside.
    • 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Bag”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC ↗, page 76 ↗:
      In ranging herself as a partisan on the side of Major Pallaby Mrs. Hoopington had been largely influenced by the fact that she had made up her mind to marry him at an early date.
  5. (intransitive) Of a variable, to be able to take any of the values in a specified range.
    The variable x ranges over all real values from 0 to 10.
  6. (transitive) To classify.
    to range plants and animals in genera and species
  7. (intransitive) To form a line or a row.
    The front of a house ranges with the street.
    • 1873, James Thomson (B.V.), The City of Dreadful Night:
      The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms, / Amidst the soundless solitudes immense / Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.
  8. (intransitive) To be placed in order; to be ranked; to admit of arrangement or classification; to rank.
    • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii]:
      And range with humble livers in content.
  9. (transitive) To set in a row, or in rows; to place in a regular line or lines, or in ranks; to dispose in the proper order.
  10. (transitive) To place among others in a line, row, or order, as in the ranks of an army; usually, reflexively and figuratively, to espouse a cause, to join a party, etc.
    • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], 10th edition, London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC ↗:
      It would be absurd in me to range myself on the side of the Duke of Bedford and the corresponding society.
  11. (biology) To be native to, or live in, a certain district or region.
    The peba ranges from Texas to Paraguay.
  12. (military, of artillery) To determine the range to a target.
  13. To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near.
    to range the coast
  14. (baseball) Of a player, to travel a significant distance for a defensive play.
Range
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. A place in USA:
    1. An ucomm in Conecuh County, Alabama.
    2. A twp/and/ucomm therein, in Madison County.
    3. An ucomm in the towns of Apple River.


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