grade

noun

• 1a particular level of rank, quality, proficiency, intensity, or value:sea salt is usually available in coarse or fine grades grade AA butter
• a level in a salary or employment structure.
• a mark indicating the quality of a student’s work:I got good grades last semester
• British an examination, especially in music:I took grade five and got a distinction
• (with specifying ordinal number) those students in a school or school system who are grouped by age or ability for teaching at a particular level for a year:she teaches first grade
• (in historical linguistics) one in a series of related root forms exhibiting ablaut.
• Zoology a group of animals at a similar evolutionary level.

• 2a gradient or slope:just over the crest of a long seven percent grade

• 3 [usually as modifier] a variety of cattle produced by crossing with a superior breed:grade stock

verb

• 1arrange in or allocate to grades; class or sort:they are graded according to thickness (as adjective graded)carefully graded exercises
• give a mark to (a student or a piece of work).

• 2 [no object] pass gradually from one level, especially a shade of color, into another:the sky graded from blue to white on the horizon

• 3reduce (a road) to an easy gradient.

• 4cross (livestock) with a superior breed.