|Origin:||Latin gradus 'step, degree'| grade1 S3 W3 [countable]
a particular level of quality that a product, material etc has:
The best grades of tea are expensive. industrial grade diamonds
low grade products a particular level of job: There are lots of
jobs in junior grades. a mark that a student is given for their
work or for an examination: mark in schoolSES He got a grade A
in maths. Tim worked hard and got good grades. to succeed or
reach the necessary standard: What does it take to make the
grade as a top golfer? one of the 12 years that students are at
school in the American school system, or the students in a
particular year second/eleventh etc grade My brother is in sixth
grade. a fifth-grade teacher a slope or a degree of slope,
especially in a road or railway [= gradient British English]