degree

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One of a series of steps in a process, course, or progression; a stage: proceeded to the next degree of difficulty.
2. n. A step in a direct hereditary line of descent or ascent: First cousins are two degrees from their common ancestor.
3. n. Relative social or official rank, dignity, or position.
4. n. Relative intensity or amount, as of a quality or attribute: a high degree of accuracy.
5. n. The extent or measure of a state of being, an action, or a relation: modernized their facilities to a large degree.
6. n. A unit division of a temperature scale.
7. n. Mathematics A planar unit of angular measure equal in magnitude to ¹/₃₆₀ of a complete revolution.
8. n. A unit of latitude or longitude, equal to ¹/₃₆₀ of a great circle.
9. n. Mathematics The greatest sum of the exponents of the variables in a term of a polynomial or polynomial equation.
10. n. Mathematics The exponent of the derivative of highest order in a differential equation in standard form.
11. n. 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.
12. n. A similar title conferred as an honorary distinction.
13. n. Law A division or classification of a specific crime according to its seriousness: murder in the second degree.
14. n. A classification of the severity of an injury, especially a burn: a third-degree burn.
15. n. 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.
16. n. Music One of the seven notes of a diatonic scale.
17. n. Music A space or line of the staff.
18. idiom. by degrees Little by little; gradually.
19. idiom. to a degree To a small extent; in a limited way: doesn't like spicy food, but can eat a little pepper to a degree.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A step, as of a stair; a stair, or set of steps.
2. n. A step or single movement toward an end; one of a series of advances; a stage of progress; a phase of development, transformation, or progressive modification.
3. n. Specifically In grammar, one of the three stages, namely, positive, comparative, and superlative, in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb. See comparison, 5.
4. n. The point of advancement reached; relative position attained; grade; rank; station; order; quality.
5. n. In universities and colleges, an academical rank conferred by a diploma, originally giving the right to teach. The earliest degree was that of master, which in the university of Bologna, and others modeled on that (as were the faculties of law in all the old universities), was called the degree of doctor. Afterward the lower degree of determinant (later called bachelor) was introduced, and the intermediate degree of licentiate; but these were not regular degrees, except in the faculty of arts. The degree of bachelor was conferred by the “nation” of the faculty of arts; the others were given by the chancellor, by authority of the pope. Thus, the medieval degrees were: the degree of determinant, or bachelor of arts, without a diploma;
6. n. In geneal., a certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood: as, a relation in the third or fourth degree. See first extract, and forbidden degrees, below.
7. n. In algebra, the rank of an equation, as determined by the highest power under which an unknown quantity appears in it. Thus, if the exponent of the highest power of the unknown quantity be 3 or 4, the equation is of the third or fourth degree.
8. n. One of a number of subdivisions of something extended in space or time. Specifically— One of a number of equal subdivisions on the scale of a meteorological or other instrument, as a thermometer.
9. n. In arithmetic, three figures taken together in numeration: thus, the number 270,360 consists of two degrees (more commonly called periods).
10. n. In music: One of the lines or spaces of the staff, upon which notes are placed. Notes on the same degree, when affected by accidentals, may denote different tones, as D, D♮, and D♭; and, similarly, notes on different degrees, as D♭ and C♮, may denote identical tones, at least upon instruments of fixed intonation.
11. n. The difference or step between a line and the adjacent space on the staff (or vice versa). Occasionally, through the use of accidentals, this difference is only apparent (see above).
12. n. The difference, interval, or step between any tone of the scale and the tone next above or below it, as from do to re, from mi to fa. The interval may be a whole step or tone, a half step or semitone, or (in the minor scale) a step and a half, or augmented tone. See step, tone, interval, staff, scale. [To distinguish between degrees of the staff and degrees of the scale, the terms staff-degree and scale-degree are sometimes used.]
13. n. Intensive quantity; the proportion in which any quality is possessed; measure; extent; grade.
14. n. In criminal law: One of certain distinctions in the culpability of the different participants in a crime. The actual perpetrator is said to be a principal in the first degree, and one who is present aiding and abetting, a principal in the second degree.
15. n. One of the phases of the same kind of crime, differing in gravity and in punishment.
16. To advance by a step or steps.
17. To place in a position or rank.
18. n. In physical chemistry, the number of conditions of a thermodynamic system which can be changed independently of each other, without destroying the system by suppressing one of its phases. For example, a system composed of water existing in the two phases, liquid and solid, and depending for equilibrium on the two conditions, temperature and pressure, has one degree of freedom and only one: any desired temperature may be given to it within certain limits, but the pressure is thereby fixed; and any pressure may be established within certain limits, but the temperature is determined in so doing.

Wiktionary

1. n. graph theory The number of edges that a vertex takes part in; a valency.
2. n. surveying The curvature of a circular arc, expressed as the angle subtended by a fixed length of arc or chord.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A step, stair, or staircase.
2. n. One of a series of progressive steps upward or downward, in quality, rank, acquirement, and the like; a stage in progression; grade; gradation.
3. n. The point or step of progression to which a person has arrived; rank or station in life; position.
4. n. Measure of advancement; quality; extent.
5. n. Grade or rank to which scholars are admitted by a college or university, in recognition of their attainments; also, (informal) the diploma provided by an educational institution attesting to the achievement of that rank.
6. n. (Genealogy) A certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; one remove in the chain of relationship.
7. n. (Arith.) Three figures taken together in numeration; thus, 140 is one degree, 222,140 two degrees.
8. n. (Algebra) State as indicated by sum of exponents; more particularly, the degree of a term is indicated by the sum of the exponents of its literal factors; thus, a2b3c is a term of the sixth degree. The degree of a power, or radical, is denoted by its index, that of an equation by the greatest sum of the exponents of the unknown quantities in any term; thus, ax4 + bx2 = c, and mx2y2 + nyx = p, are both equations of the fourth degree.
9. n. (Trig.) A 360th part of the circumference of a circle, which part is taken as the principal unit of measure for arcs and angles. The degree is divided into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.
10. n. A division, space, or interval, marked on a mathematical or other instrument, as on a thermometer.
11. n. (Mus.) A line or space of the staff.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality
2. n. a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process
3. n. an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study
4. n. the highest power of a term or variable
5. n. a unit of temperature on a specified scale
6. n. a measure for arcs and angles
7. n. the seriousness of something (e.g., a burn or crime)