different between skill vs rank

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English skill, skille (also schil, schile), from Old English scille and Old Norse skil (“a distinction, discernment, knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic *skilj? (“separation, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skel (“a separation, boundary, divide”), Swedish skäl (“reason”), Dutch verschil (“difference”) and schillen (“to separate the outer layer (schil) from the product”, verb).

Alternative forms

• skil (obsolete)

Noun

skill (countable and uncountable, plural skills)

1. Capacity to do something well; technique, ability. Skills are usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities, which are often thought of as innate.

   Synonyms: ability, talent; see also Thesaurus:skill
2. (obsolete) Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II, Hackett, 2006, Canto I, Stanza 54, lines 1-5, p. 21,

     Him so I sought, and so at last I fownd

     Where him that witch had thralled to her will,

     In chaines of lust and lewde desyres ybownd

     And so transformed from his former skill,

     That me he knew not, nether his owne ill;

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act IV, Scene 7,^[2]

     Methinks I should know you, and know this man;

     Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant

     What place this is; and all the skill I have

     Remembers not these garments; nor I know not

     Where I did lodge last night. […]

3. (obsolete) Knowledge; understanding.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book III, Hackett, 2006, Canto III, Stanza 45, lines 4-5, p. 62,

     And Howell Dha shall goodly well indew

     The salvage minds with skill of just and trew;

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II,^[3]

     […] This desert soil

     Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;

     Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise

     Magnificence […]

4. (obsolete) Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre, Book III, Chapter VI,^{[4], [5]}

     Richard was well stored with men, the bones, and quickly got money, the sinews of warre; by a thousand princely skills gathering so much coin as if he meant not to return, because looking back would unbowe his resolution.

Derived terms

• soft skill

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

skill (comparative skiller, superlative skillest)

1. (Britain, slang) Great, excellent. [1980s–1990s]
   • 1987, Teresa Maughan, Letters (in Your Sinclair issue 18, June 1987)

     Well, unfortunately for you, my dearest Waggipoos, I'm much more skill than you!

   • 1991, Wreckers (video game review in Crash issue 88, May 1991)

     This game is skill. Remember that because it's going to sound really complicated.

   • 1999, "Andy Smith", I am well skill (on Internet newsgroup alt.digitiser)

     And I am skiller than you.

Etymology 2

From Middle English skilen (also schillen), partly from Old English scylian, scielian (“to separate, part, divide off”); and partly from Old Norse skilja (“to divide, separate”); both from Proto-Germanic *skil?n?, *skiljan? (“to divide, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skille (“to separate, discard”), Swedish skilja (“to distinguish, differentiate, part”), Icelandic skilja (“to understand”), Low German schelen (“to make a difference; to be squint-eyed”), Dutch schelen (“to make a difference”).

Verb

skill (third-person singular simple present skills, present participle skilling, simple past and past participle skilled)

1. (transitive) To set apart; separate.
2. (transitive, chiefly dialectal) To discern; have knowledge or understanding; to know how (to).
   • 1633, George Herbert, “Justice,” in The Temple,^[6]

     I cannot skill of these Thy ways […]

3. (transitive, dialectal, Scotland, Northern England, rare) To know; to understand.
   • 1613, Breadalbane Letters and Documents

     As for the virginals I have none here that skill of them, except the young lord.

   • 17th century, Isaac Barrow, “On Industry in Our Particular Calling as Scholars,”

     […] to skill the arts of expressing our mind and imparting our conceptions with advantage, so as to instruct or persuade others […]

4. (intransitive) To have knowledge or comprehension; discern.
5. (intransitive) To have personal or practical knowledge; be versed or practised; be expert or dextrous.
6. (intransitive, archaic) To make a difference; signify; matter.
   • 1592, Richard Turnbull, An Exposition upon the Canonicall Epistle of Saint Jude, London: John Windet, Sermon 5, p. 67,^[7]

     So then the whole scripture of God, being true, whence soever this be delivered and gathered, it skilleth not […]

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, Scene 1,^[8]

     […] I should have given’t you to-day morning, but as a madman’s epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered.

   • 1633, George Herbert, “The Church Porch,” in The Temple,^[9]

     What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold

     About thy neck do drown thee?

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 42,^[10]

     But it skills not talking of it.

7. (video games) To spend acquired points in exchange for skills.

Synonyms

• (separate): split (call management systems)

References

• Skel i “skill” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Anagrams

• Kills, kills

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

skill

1. imperative of skille

Translingual

Symbol

rank

1. (mathematics) The symbol for rank.

English

Alternative forms

• ranck (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?re?- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”).

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

1. Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter (used of negative things).
2. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

   • And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
3. Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
4. Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
5. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
6. Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

   Synonyms: stinky, smelly, (UK) pong

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist

     Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.

7. Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).

   Synonyms: complete, utter
8. (informal) Gross, disgusting.
9. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
10. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious

Derived terms

• ranken
• rankful

Translations

Adverb

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

1. (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 [...].

   • That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.

Etymology 2

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”).

Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”) (Modern English ring), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). More at ring.

Noun

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.

   Antonym: file

   The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.
2. (chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).

   Antonym: file

3. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
4. 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.

6. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
7. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.

   a membership drawn from the ranks of wealthy European businessmen
9. A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.

   Private First Class (PFC) is the second-lowest rank in the Marines.

   He rose up through the ranks of the company, from mailroom clerk to CEO.

10. (taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.

    Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

11. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
13. (linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
14. (algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
15. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.

Derived terms

• break rank
• cab off the rank
• cab rank
• cab-rank rule
• close ranks
• pull rank
• taxi rank

Translations

Verb

rank (third-person singular simple present ranks, present participle ranking, simple past and past participle ranked)

1. To place abreast, or in a line.
2. To have a ranking.

   Their defense ranked third in the league.

3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

     Ranking all things under general and special heads.

   • 1726, William Broome, The Odyssey (by Homer)

     Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

   • 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety

     Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.

4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

Derived terms

• misrank
• outrank

Translations

References

• rank at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rank in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ARNK, Karn, karn, knar, kran, nark

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??k/
• Hyphenation: rank
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ranc, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankst)

1. slender, svelte

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch ranc, ranke, from Old Dutch *rank, from Frankish hranca.

Noun

rank f (plural ranken, diminutive rankje n)

1. tendril, a thin winding stem

Anagrams

• karn

References

German

Etymology

From Middle Low German rank, ranc, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?k/

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker, superlative am ranksten)

1. (poetic, dated, except in the phrase rank und schlank) lithe, lissome

Declension

Related terms

• rahn

Verb

rank

1. singular imperative of ranken

Further reading

• “rank” in Duden online