range — English Dictionary

range
Pronunciations (7)
  • /ˈɹeɪnd͡ʒ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Canada
    • General-American
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /ˈɹɛjnd͡ʒ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • British
    • Southern
    • Standard
  • /ˈɾend͡ʒ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Scotland
  • /ˈɾeːnd͡ʒ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Wales
  • /ˈɹeːnd͡ʒ/
  • /ˈɹæɪnd͡ʒ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
    • New-Zealand
  • ɹeɪndʒ

Noun

  1. A line or series of mountains, buildings, etc.

  2. A fireplace; a fire or other cooking apparatus; now specifically, a large cooking stove with many burners (hotplates).

    Examples
    More examples (2)

    Therein an hundred raunges weren pight, / And hundred fournaces all burning bright; / By euery fournace many feendes did byde, / Deformed creatures, horrible in ſight, / And euery feend his buſie paines applyde, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde.

    There was juſt ſuch another Innocent as this, in my Fathers Family : He did the Courſe Work in the Kitchin, and was bid at his firſt Coming to take off the Range, and let down the Cynders before he went to Bed.

  3. Selection, array.

    Examples

    We sell a wide range of cars.

    More examples (2)

    But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

    Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

  4. An area for practicing shooting at targets.

  5. An area for military training or equipment testing.

  6. The distance from a person or sensor to an object, target, emanation, or event.

    Examples

    We could see the ship at a range of five miles.

    One can use the speed of sound to estimate the range of a lightning flash.

  7. The maximum distance or reach of capability (of a weapon, radio, detector, etc.).

    Examples

    This missile's range is 500 kilometres.

  8. The distance a vehicle (e.g., a car, bicycle, lorry, or aircraft) can travel without refueling.

    Examples

    This aircraft's range is 15 000 kilometres.

  9. An area of open, often unfenced, grazing land.

    Examples

    There is a young cowboy, he lives on the range / His horse and his cattle are his only companions

  10. The extent or space taken in by anything excursive; compass or extent of excursion; reach; scope.

    Examples
    More examples (3)

    As to acquir’d habits and abilities in Learning, his Writings having given the World ſufficient account of them, there remains onely to obſerve, that the range and compaſs of his knowledge fill’d the whole Circle of the Arts, and reach’d thoſe ſeverals which ſingle do exact an entire man unto themſelves, and full age.

    For we may further obſerve that men of the greateſt abilities are moſt fired with ambition : and that, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the leaſt actuated by it ; whether it be that a man’s ſenſe of his own incapacities makes him deſpair of coming at fame, or that he has not enough range of thought to look out for any good which does not more immediately relate to his intereſt or convenience, or that Providence, in the very frame of his ſoul, would not ſubject him to ſuch a paſſion as would be uſeleſs to the world, and a torment to himſelf.

    Far as Creation’s ample range extends, / The ſcale of Senſual, Mental pow’rs aſcends : / Mark how it mounts, to Man’s imperial race, / From the green myriads in the peopled graſs !

  11. The set of values (points) which a function can obtain.

    Antonyms
  12. The length of the smallest interval which contains all the data in a sample; the difference between the largest and smallest observations in the sample.

  13. The defensive area that a player can cover.

    Examples

    Jones has good range for a big man.

  14. The scale of all the tones a voice or an instrument can produce.

    Synonyms
  15. The geographical area or zone where a species is normally naturally found.

  16. A sequential list of values specified by an iterator.

    Examples

    std::for_each calls the given function on each value in the input range.

  17. An aggregate of individuals in one rank or degree; an order; a class.

    Examples

    The next Range of Beings above him are the pure and immaterial Intelligences , the next below him is the sensible Nature.

  18. The step of a ladder; a rung.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    Examples

    the first range of that ladder

  19. A bolting sieve to sift meal.

    Usage
    • UK usage
    • dialectal
    • Obsolete
  20. A wandering or roving; a going to and fro; an excursion; a ramble; an expedition.

    Examples

    , "Taking Pleasure in Other Men's Sins" He may take a range all the world over.

  21. In the public land system, a row or line of townships lying between two succession meridian lines six miles apart.

    Usage
    • US usage
    • Historical
  22. The variety of roles that an actor can play in a satisfactory way.

    Examples

    By playing in comedies as well as in dramas he has proved his range as an actor.

Verb

  1. To travel over (an area, etc); to roam, wander.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
  2. To rove over or through.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    to range the fields

    Novv to the copſe thy leſſer ſpaniel take, / Teach him to range the ditch, and force the brake; […]

  3. To exercise the power of something over something else; to cause to submit to, over.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • Obsolete
    Examples

    The soule is variable in all manner of formes, and rangeth to her selfe, and to her estate, whatsoever it be, the senses of the body, and all other accidents.

  4. To bring (something) into a specified position or relationship (especially, of opposition) with something else.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots were needed no longer. The stout sail-boat that had accompanied us began ranging alongside.

    More examples (1)

    In ranging herself as a partisan on the side of Major Pallaby Mrs. Hoopington had been largely influenced by the fact that she had made up her mind to marry him at an early date.

  5. Of a variable, to be able to take any of the values in a specified range.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Synonyms
    Examples

    The variable x ranges over all real values from 0 to 10.

    More examples (3)

    The police seized 12,000 files containing information on a wide range of organisations and individuals. The ADL claimed to be only monitoring ‘hate groups’, and denied passing information to Israel or South Africa. But the files ranged over Arab-American community organisations, trade unions, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, Anti-Apartheid, Women in Black and the International Jewish Peace Union. Only a relative handful of files dealt with the far right.

    In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter. Their densities range from that of styrofoam to iron.

    The 2025 timetable would feature two trains per hour, alternately routed via Kirkcaldy (with 11 intermediate stops) and Dunfermline (14 stops), with journey times ranging between 65 and 81 minutes.

  6. To classify.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    to range plants and animals in genera and species

    The coins are ranged into nine classes.

    More examples (1)

    All requirements could be ranged into the classes.

  7. To form a line or a row.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    The front of a house ranges with the street.

    The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms, / Amidst the soundless solitudes immense / Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.

  8. To be placed in order; to be ranked; to admit of arrangement or classification; to rank.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    And range with humble livers in content.

  9. To set in a row, or in rows; to place in a regular line or lines, or in ranks; to dispose in the proper order.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Maccabeus ranged his army by hands.

    More examples (1)

    Were this dependence of the body and mind more studied, and its effects collected and ranged into proper order; no doubt, we would be able to form a better judgment of it, and see further into the good purposes to which it serves;

  10. To place among others in a line, row, or order, as in the ranks of an army; usually, reflexively and figuratively, to espouse a cause, to join a party, etc.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    It would be absurd in me to range myself on the side of the Duke of Bedford and the corresponding society.

  11. To be native to, or live in, a certain district or region.

    Examples

    The peba ranges from Texas to Paraguay.

  12. To determine the range to a target.

    Usage
    • of artillery
  13. To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near.

    Examples

    to range the coast

  14. Of a player, to travel a significant distance for a defensive play.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Willie, playing in left-center, raced toward a ball no human had any business getting a glove to. Mays ranged to his left, searching, digging in, pouring on the speed, as the crowd screamed its anticipation of a triple.

Noun

  1. an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:

    Broader terms
    Examples

    a piano has a greater range than the human voice

    the ambit of municipal legislation

    More examples (4)

    within the compass of this article

    within the scope of an investigation

    outside the reach of the law

    in the political orbit of a world power

  2. the limits within which something can be effective

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    range of motion

    he was beyond the reach of their fire

  3. a large tract of grassy open land on which livestock can graze

    Examples

    they used to drive the cattle across the open range every spring

    he dreamed of a home on the range

  4. a series of hills or mountains

    Examples

    the valley was between two ranges of hills

    the plains lay just beyond the mountain range

  5. a place for shooting (firing or driving) projectiles of various kinds

    Examples

    the army maintains a missile range in the desert

    any good golf club will have a range where you can practice

  6. a variety of different things or activities

    Examples

    he answered a range of questions

    he was impressed by the range and diversity of the collection

  7. (mathematics) the set of values of the dependent variable for which a function is defined

    Broader terms
    Examples

    the image of f(x) = x^2 is the set of all non-negative real numbers if the domain of the function is the set of all real numbers

  8. the limit of capability

    Examples

    within the compass of education

  9. a kitchen appliance used for cooking food

    Broader terms
    Examples

    dinner was already on the stove

Verb

  1. change or be different within limits

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    Estimates for the losses in the earthquake range as high as $2 billion

    Interest rates run from 5 to 10 percent

    More examples (2)

    The instruments ranged from tuba to cymbals

    My students range from very bright to dull

  2. move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

    Examples

    The gypsies roamed the woods

    roving vagabonds

    More examples (4)

    the wandering Jew

    The cattle roam across the prairie

    the laborers drift from one town to the next

    They rolled from town to town

  3. have a range; be capable of projecting over a certain distance, as of a gun

    Broader terms
    Examples

    This gun ranges over two miles

  4. range or extend over; occupy a certain area

    Synonyms
    Examples

    The plants straddle the entire state

  5. lay out orderly or logically in a line or as if in a line

    Broader terms
    Examples

    lay out the clothes

    lay out the arguments

  6. feed as in a meadow or pasture

    Broader terms
    Examples

    the herd was grazing

  7. let eat

    Broader terms
    Examples

    range the animals in the prairie

  8. assign a rank or rating to

    Examples

    how would you rank these students?

    The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide

Word forms
rangesrangesrangingrangedranged

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