n. A step, degree, or rank in any series or order; relative position or standing as regards quantity, quality, office, etc.n. In a road or railroad, the degree of inclination from the horizontal; also, a part of such a road inclined from the horizontal. It is expressed in degrees, in feet per mile, or as a foot in a certain distance.n. In zoölogical classification, any group or series of animals, with reference to their earlier or later branching off from the stem or stock from which they are presumed to have evolved.n. An animal, particularly a cow or bull or a sheep, resulting from a cross between a parent of pure blood and one that is not pure-bred: as, an Aldevney grade. [Also used as an adjective.]To sort out or arrange in order according to size, quality, rank, degree of advancement, etc.: as, to grade fruit, wheat, or sugar; to grade the children of a school.To reduce, as the line of a canal, road, or railway, to such levels or degrees of inclination as may make it suitable for being used.To improve the breed of. as common stock, by crossing with animals of pure blood.Same as graith.n. In trigonometry, in the centesimal system, the hundredth part of a right angle: also, the hundredth part of a quadrant.n. A small difference between the brightness of two stars: substantially the same as a step: a term used by observers of variable stars.n. In philol., one of the positions or forms assumed by a vowel or root in a series of phonetic changes caused primarily by change of stress and other factors, as the vowels in English sing, sang, sung, ride, rode, ridden, etc., Latin capio, cepi, -cipio, etc., Greek √λειπ, √λιπ, √λοιπ, leave, √τεμ, √ταμ, √τομ, cut, etc.In physical geography, to develop by eroding or filling (degrading or aggrading) into an even slope on which an eroding and transporting agent (such as a stream) will not actively build up or wear down its course.In philology to alter or be altered by gradation or ablaut.To prove to be of a certain grade or quality.