rating

The word “rating” means a score or ranking showing how good, popular, or capable something is. In plain terms, a score or ranking, or TV audience numbers.

“Rating” is pronounced RAY-tihng (/ˈɹeɪtɪŋ/ in IPA).

Here is “rating” used in a sentence: “The restaurant has a five-star rating on the app.”

“Rating” is a noun.

“Rating” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Rating” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a score or ranking showing how good, popular, or capable something is.

A rating is a quick score or ranking — a number of stars, a percentage, or a grade — that sums up quality at a glance. A review is the fuller written explanation behind it. A film might get four stars (the rating) plus a paragraph explaining why (the review).

A rating scores something on its own against a scale, such as four out of five stars. A ranking places things in order relative to each other — first, second, third. You can rate every item individually, then rank them by comparing those ratings against one another.

Ratings take many forms: star ratings for films and products, credit ratings for financial trustworthiness, age or content ratings for media, performance ratings at work, and TV ratings measuring audience size. All express, in a compact score or grade, how good, popular, safe, or capable something is.

A hotel scoring 8.5 out of 10 on a booking site is a rating. So is a five-star product review, a PG or 15 film certificate, a restaurant's hygiene score, or a credit rating like AAA. Each condenses a judgement about quality or standing into a simple figure.