rate
/ɹeɪt/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.14 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet."
- "His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education."
- "At the height of his powers, he was producing pictures at the rate of four a year."
- "Negative responses to this program were being received by the office of the National Gay Task Force at the rate of ten to one."
- "In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%."
- "The car was speeding down here at a hell of a rate."
Etymology
From Middle English rate, from Old French rate, from Medieval Latin rata, from Latin prō ratā parte (“according to a fixed part”), from ratus (“fixed”), from rērī (“think, deem, judge, estimate", originally "reckon, calculate”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹeɪt/
- British English: /ɹeɪt/