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1. A row or line of people (especially soldiers or police) standing abreast of one another
   "the entrance was guarded by ranks of policemen"
    
2. Relative status
   "his salary was determined by his rank and seniority"
    
3. (military) the ordinary members of an organization (such as the enlisted soldiers of an army)
   "the strike was supported by the union rank and file"; "he rose from the ranks to become a colonel";
   - rank and file
    
4. Position in a social hierarchy
   "the British are more aware of rank than Americans are";
   - social station, social status, social rank
    
5. The body of members of an organization or group
   "they found dissension in their own ranks"; "he joined the ranks of the unemployed";
   - membership
    
6. (computing) the dimensionality of an array
    
7. (chess) one of the horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard
    
8. (mathematics) the number of linearly independent columns or rows of a matrix; related concepts in other specialized areas

1. Take or have a position relative to others
   "This painting ranks among the best in the Western World"
    
2. Assign a rank or rating to
   "how would you rank these students?";
   - rate, range, order, grade, place
    
3. Take precedence or surpass others in rank
   - outrank

1. Very fertile; producing profuse growth
   "rank earth"
    
2. Very offensive in smell or taste
   "a rank cigar"
    
3. Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
   "rank treachery";
   - crying, egregious, flagrant, glaring, gross
    
4. Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as an intensifier
   "a rank outsider";
   - absolute, downright, out-and-out, right-down, sheer, down-the-line [informal]
    
5. Growing profusely
   "rank jungle vegetation"

Derived forms: ranking, ranks, rankest, ranked, ranker

See also: abundant, complete, conspicuous, fertile, offensive

Type of: be, body, evaluate, excel, force, judge, line, pass judgment, personnel, position, rule, stand out, status, surpass

Part of: organisation [Brit], organization

Encyclopedia: Rank, Michael