• enPR: rāt, IPA: /ɹeɪt/,

rate (plural rates)

1. (obsolete) The worth of something; value. [15th-19th centuries]
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, V.3:

     There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:

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     His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education.

2. The proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another. [from the 15th century]

   At the height of his powers, he was producing pictures at the rate of four a year.

3. Speed. [from the 17th century]

   The car was speeding down here at a hell of a rate.

   • Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough.

4. The relative speed of change or progress. [from the 18th century]

   The rate of production at the factory is skyrocketing.

5. The price of (an individual) thing; cost. [from the 16th century]

   He asked quite a rate to take me to the airport.

6. A set price or charge for all examples of a given case, commodity, service etc. [from the 16th century]

   Postal rates here are low.

7. A wage calculated in relation to a unit of time.

   We pay an hourly rate of between $10 – $15 per hour depending on qualifications and experience.

8. Any of various taxes, especially those levied by a local authority. [from the 17th century]

   I hardly have enough left every month to pay the rates.

9. (nautical) A class into which ships were assigned based on condition, size etc.; by extension, rank.

   This textbook is first-rate.

10. (obsolete) Established portion or measure; fixed allowance; ration.

    • The one right feeble through the evil rate / Of food which in her duress she had found.

11. (obsolete) Order; arrangement.

    • Thus sat they all around in seemly rate.

12. (obsolete) Ratification; approval.
13. (horology) The gain or loss of a timepiece in a unit of time.

    daily rate; hourly rate; etc.

• French: taux
• German: Rate
• Italian: tasso
• Portuguese: taxa, razão
• Russian: пропо́рция
• Spanish: tasa

• German: Rate
• Portuguese: taxa
• Russian: ско́рость
• Spanish: velocidad

• German: Rate
• Portuguese: custo, preço
• Russian: тари́ф
• Spanish: impuesto

• Russian: ста́вка

rate (rates, present participle rating; past and past participle rated)

1. (transitive) To assign or be assigned a particular rank or level.

   She is rated fourth in the country.

2. (transitive) To evaluate or estimate the value of.

   They rate his talents highly.

   • To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible.

3. (transitive) To consider or regard.

   He rated this book brilliant.

4. (transitive) To deserve; to be worth.

   The view here hardly rates a mention in the travel guide.

   • 1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 101:

     Only two assistant district attorneys rate corner offices, and Mandelbaum wasn't one of them.

5. (transitive) To determine the limits of safe functioning for a machine or electrical device.

   The transformer is rated at 10 watts.

6. (transitive, chiefly, British) To evaluate a property's value for the purposes of local taxation.
7. (transitive, informal) To like; to think highly of.

   The customers don't rate the new burgers.

8. (intransitive) To have position (in a certain class).

   She rates among the most excellent chefs in the world.

   He rates as the best cyclist in the country.

9. (intransitive) To have value or standing.

   This last performance of hers didn't rate very high with the judges.

10. (transitive) To ratify.

    • to rate the truce

11. To ascertain the exact rate of the gain or loss of (a chronometer) as compared with true time.

• (have position in a certain class) rank

• French: coter
• Italian: classificare
• Portuguese: qualificar
• Spanish: calificar

rate (rates, present participle rating; past and past participle rated)

1. (transitive) To berate, scold.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy!

   • Conscience is a check to beginners in sin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it.

   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John IX:

     Then rated they hym, and sayde: Thou arte hys disciple.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book I, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     Andronicus the Emperour, finding by chance in his pallace certaine principall men very earnestly disputing against Lapodius about one of our points of great importance, taunted and rated them very bitterly, and threatened if they gave not over, he would cause them to be cast into the river.

   • 1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman (Scott novel), ch.iv:

     He beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil […] couching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of the chapel; but apparently without venturing to cross it; […] a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden of his inward feelings.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (book), book 2, ch.XV, Practical — Devotional

     The successful monk, on the morrow morning, hastens home to Ely, Cambridgeshire […]. The successful monk, arriving at Ely, is rated for a goose and an owl; is ordered back to say that Elmset was the place meant.