The obsession with Rank

1. One of a series of steps in a process, course, or progression; a stage: proceeded to the next degree of difficulty.
2. A step in a direct hereditary line of descent or ascent: First cousins are two degrees from their common ancestor.
3. Relative social or official rank, dignity, or position.
4. Relative intensity or amount, as of a quality or attribute: a high degree of accuracy.
5. The extent or measure of a state of being, an action, or a relation: modernized their facilities to a large degree.
6. A unit division of a temperature scale.
7. Mathematics A planar unit of angular measure equal in magnitude to 1/360 of a complete revolution.
8. A unit of latitude or longitude, equal to 1/360 of a great circle.
9. Mathematics
a. The greatest sum of the exponents of the variables in a term of a polynomial or polynomial equation.
b. The exponent of the derivative of highest order in a differential equation in standard form.
10.
a. An academic title given by a college or university to a student who has completed a course of study: received the Bachelor of Arts degree at commencement.
b. A similar title conferred as an honorary distinction.
11. Law A division or classification of a specific crime according to its seriousness: murder in the second degree.
12. A classification of the severity of an injury, especially a burn: a third-degree burn.
13. Grammar One of the forms used in the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. For example, tall is the positive degree, taller the comparative degree, and tallest the superlative degree of the adjective tall.
14. Music
a. One of the seven notes of a diatonic scale.
b. A space or line of the staff.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/degree

1.
a. A relative position in a society.
b. An official position or grade: the rank of sergeant.
c. A relative position or degree of value in a graded group.
d. High or eminent station or position: persons of rank.
2. A row, line, series, or range.
3.
a. A line of soldiers, vehicles, or equipment standing side by side in close order.
b. ranks The armed forces.
c. ranks Personnel, especially enlisted military personnel.
4. ranks A body of people classed together; numbers: joined the ranks of the unemployed.
5. Games Any of the rows of squares running crosswise to the files on a playing board in chess or checkers.
v. ranked, rank·ing, ranks
v.tr.
1. To place in a row or rows.
2. To give a particular order or position to; classify.
3. To outrank or take precedence over.
v.intr.
1. To hold a particular rank: ranked first in the class.
2. To form or stand in a row or rows.
3. Slang
a. To complain.
b. To engage in carping criticism. Often used with on: Stop ranking on me all the time.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rank

As nouns the difference between rank and degree is that rank is a row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers [the corresponding term for the perpendicular columns in such a pattern is "file"] while degree is .

As a adjective rank is (obsolete) strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
As a adverb rank is (obsolete) quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
As a verb rank is to place abreast, or in a line.

rank
English
Adjective
(obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter.
rank''' treason / '''rank nonsense
Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
*1899 ,
*:The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple [...]
Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.
Your gym clothes are rank , bro’ – when d’you last wash ’em?
(informal) Gross, disgusting.
Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).
I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.
* {{quote-news
|year=2011 |date=March 1 |author=Phil McNulty |title=Chelsea 2 - 1 Man Utd |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/9405635.stm |page= |passage=Chelsea remain rank outsiders to retain their crown and they still lie 12 points adrift of United, but Ancelotti will regard this as a performance that supports his insistence that they can still have a say when the major prizes are handed out this season. }}
Synonyms
* (bad odor) stinky, smelly ** See also: pong (UK) * (complete) complete, utter
Adverb
(en-adv)
(obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iii:
The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke , / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare [...].
* Fairfax
That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.
Noun
(en-noun)
A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers [the corresponding term for the perpendicular columns in such a pattern is "file"].
The front rank''' kneeled to reload while the second '''rank fired over their heads.
*{{quote-book|year=1907|author=
|title=The Dust of Conflict |chapter=7|url=http://openlibrary.org/works/OL4429277W |passage=Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs
(chess) one of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard [the corresponding term for a vertical line is "file"].
(music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality
Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.
The fancy hotel was of the first rank.
(class)The level of one's position in a class-based society
a level in an organization such as the military
Private First Class (PFC) is the lowest rank in the Marines.
He rose up through the ranks of the company from mailroom clerk to CEO.
(taxonomy) a level in a scientific taxonomy system
Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.
(linear algebra) Maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor (mathematics).
Derived terms
* break rank * close ranks * pull rank
Verb
(en-verb)
To place abreast, or in a line.
To have a ranking.
Their defense ranked third in the league.
To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
* I. Watts
Ranking all things under general and special heads.
* Broome
Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.
* Dr. H. More
Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.
(US) To take rank of; to outrank.
Anagrams
* * * English intensifiers ----
degree
English
(wikipedia)
Noun
(en-noun)
An individual step, or stage, in any process or scale of values.
A stage of rank or privilege; social standing.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XX:
Master, we knowe that thou sayest, and teachest ryght, nether considerest thou eny mannes degre , but techest the waye of god truely.
(genealogy) A ‘step’ in genealogical descent.
* 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, p. 140:
Louis created the École militaire in Paris in 1751, in which 500 scholarships were designated for noblemen able to prove four degrees of noble status.
* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) :
If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree , some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
The amount that an entity possesses a certain property; relative intensity, extent.
*
|title=(The Celebrity)|chapter=1 |passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}
A stage of proficiency or qualification in a course of study, now especially an award bestowed by a university or, in some countries, a college, as a certification of academic achievement. (In the United States, can include secondary schools.)
(geometry) A unit of measurement of angle equal to 1/360 of a circle's circumference.
(physics) A unit of measurement of temperature on any of several scales, such as Celsius or Fahrenheit.
(mathematics) The sum of the exponents of a term; the order of a polynomial.
(graph theory) The number of edges that a vertex takes part in; a valency.
(surveying) The curvature of a circular arc, expressed as the angle subtended by a fixed length of arc or chord.
Synonyms
* (unit of angle) * (unit of temperature)
Derived terms
* degree Celsius * degree centigrade * degree days * degree Fahrenheit * academic degree * first degree burns * second degree burns
Related terms
* scale
Usage notes
* A person who is engaged in a course of study leading to the earning of a degree can be described (in the present progressive tense) as "doing a degree" in British English, and as "getting a degree" in American English. For example, in American English, "She is currently getting''' her master's degree at State University."'' In British English, ''"I am still confused about when to use 'an' instead of 'a'. Is it an hour or a hour, and if someone is '''doing a master's degree in arts, is it an MA or a MA?" ([http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/anma?view=uk Ask Oxford.Com - Ask the Experts - Frequently Asked Questions (Grammar)]).
Statistics
* 1000 English basic words
http://www.wikidiff.com/degree/rank