• IPA: /ɹæŋk/

From Middle English rank, from Old English ranc, from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-.

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankest)

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.

      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. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →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, 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.

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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

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

• German: geil (archaic)

• French: malodorant, rance
• German: stinkend
• Italian: puzzolente
• Portuguese: rançoso
• Russian: воню́чий
• Spanish: rancio

• German: ekelhaft
• Italian: ripugnante, repellente
• Portuguese: repugnante
• Russian: отврати́тельный
• Spanish: repugnante

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[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC ↗:

     That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.

From Middle English rank, from Old French ranc, rang, reng (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz.

Akin to Old High German hring, ofs hring, Old English hring, Old Norse hringr. Doublet of ring and rink.

rank

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

   Antonyms: file

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

   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC ↗:

     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).

   Antonyms: 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.

5. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
6. (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

7. 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.

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

   Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

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

• Portuguese: fileira, coluna
• Russian: ряд
• Spanish: columna

• French: registre

• French: rang
• German: Rang; Dienstgrad
• Italian: rango, ceto, condizione sociale
• Russian: класс
• Spanish: rango

• French: rang

• French: rang
• German: Dienstgrad
• Italian: grado, truppa, gregario, rango
• Portuguese: posição
• Russian: ранг
• Spanish: grado

• Italian: rango
• Russian: ранг

• French: rangée
• German: Reihe
• Italian: traversa
• Portuguese: fileira
• Russian: горизонта́ль
• Spanish: fila

rank (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.

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

• French: ranger
• Portuguese: enfileirar

• French: classer
• German: an einer Stelle stehen, rangieren
• Portuguese: ranquear
• Spanish: clasificar

• French: coter
• Italian: annoverare

1. Surname.