grade

The word “grade” means a mark or score showing how well someone did on a test or in a course. In plain terms, a level, rank, or mark — used for school scores, quality levels, school years, and even the steepness of a slope.

“Grade” is pronounced grayd ([ɡɹeɪd] in IPA).

Here is “grade” used in a sentence: “She got an A grade on her final exam.”

Depending on how it is used, “grade” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “grade” comes from Latin. From Middle French grade, from Latin gradus ("a step, degree"), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to walk" or "to step.".

“Grade” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“Grade” has 7 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a mark or score showing how well someone did on a test or in a course.

They are close, and in British English often interchangeable. A mark usually means the raw score, such as 78 out of 100, while a grade is the letter or band it falls into, like A or B. A mark records the exact result; a grade sorts that result into a category.

Beyond a school score, grade can mean a level of quality, such as grade A eggs; a rank or position, such as a senior grade; a year level in American schools, such as fifth grade; or the steepness of a slope. As a verb it means to mark work or to sort by quality.

This depends on the system, but an A, or a percentage in the high 80s or 90s, is generally seen as strong, while a pass often sits around 40 to 50 percent. Good is relative to the course, the grading scale, and personal goals, so context matters more than the letter alone.

A grade is the score for a single test, assignment, or course. A grade point average, or GPA, combines many grades into one overall figure, usually on a set scale, to summarise performance across a whole programme. One is a single result; the other is a cumulative average of many.