Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A number or grouping of things in the same category or within specified limits.
  • noun An amount or extent of variation.
  • noun Music The gamut of tones that a voice or instrument is capable of producing.
  • noun A class, rank, or order.
  • noun Extent of perception, knowledge, experience, or ability.
  • noun The area or sphere in which an activity takes place.
  • noun The maximum extent or distance limiting operation, action, or effectiveness, as of a sound, radio signal, instrument, firearm, or aircraft.
  • noun The maximum distance that can be covered by a vehicle with a specified payload before its fuel supply is exhausted.
  • noun The distance between a projectile weapon and its target.
  • noun A place equipped for practice in shooting at targets.
  • noun A testing area at which rockets and missiles are launched and tracked.
  • noun A place or business where golf shots can be practiced.
  • noun An extensive area of open land on which livestock wander and graze.
  • noun The geographic region in which a plant or animal normally lives or grows.
  • noun The opportunity or freedom to wander or explore.
  • noun Mathematics The set of all values a given function may take on.
  • noun Statistics The difference or interval between the smallest and largest values in a frequency distribution or a set of data.
  • noun A group or series of things extending in a line or row, especially a row or chain of mountains.
  • noun One of a series of double-faced bookcases in a library stack room.
  • noun A north-south strip of townships, each six miles square, numbered east and west from a specified meridian in a US public land survey.
  • noun A stove with spaces for cooking a number of things at the same time.
  • intransitive verb To vary within specified limits.
  • intransitive verb To extend in a particular direction.
  • intransitive verb To cover or have application to a number of things.
  • intransitive verb To move through, along, or around in an area or region.
  • intransitive verb To wander freely; roam.
  • intransitive verb To look over something or around an area or place.
  • intransitive verb To live or grow within a particular region.
  • intransitive verb To arrange or dispose in a particular order, especially in rows or lines.
  • intransitive verb To assign to a particular category; classify.
  • intransitive verb To move through or along or around in (an area or region).
  • intransitive verb To look over or throughout (something).
  • intransitive verb To turn (livestock) onto an extensive area of open land for grazing.
  • intransitive verb To align (a gun, for example) with a target.
  • intransitive verb To determine the distance of (a target).
  • intransitive verb To be capable of reaching (a maximum distance).
  • intransitive verb Nautical To uncoil (an anchor cable) on deck so the anchor may descend easily.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A line or row (usually straight or nearly straight); a linear series; a regular sequence; a rank; a chain: used especially of large objects permanently fixed or lying in direct succession to one another, as mountains, trees, buildings, columns, etc.
  • noun Specifically— A line or chain of mountains; a Cordillera: as, to skirt the range; to cross the ranges.
  • noun In United States surveys of public land, one of a series of divisions numbered east or west from the prime meridian of the survey, consisting of townships which are numbered north or south in every division from a base-line. See township.
  • noun In geometry, a series of points lying in one straight line.
  • noun A rank, class, or order; a series of beings or things belonging to the same grade or having like characteristics.
  • noun The extent of any aggregate, congeries, or complex, material or immaterial; array of things or sequences of a specific kind; scope; compass: as, the range of industries in a country; the whole range of events or of history; the range of prices or of operations; the range of one's thoughts or learning.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, row, rank, from Old French, from rangier, to put in a row, from rang, reng, line, of Germanic origin; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rengen, from Old French renger ("range, rank, order, array"), from rang ("a rank, row"), from Old High German hring, hrinc, Middle High German rinc ("a ring").

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Examples

  • Who indeed can watch the ceaseless observation, and inquiry, and inference going on in a child's mind, or listen to its acute remarks on matters within the range of its faculties, without perceiving that these powers it manifests, if brought to bear systematically upon studies _within the same range_, would readily master them without help?

    Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library Herbert Spencer 1861

  • The company attempted to trademark the term "range anxiety" to describe worry drivers feel when their battery runs low, a dig on Nissan's Leaf.

    GM Plans All-Electric Minicar Sharon Terlep 2011

  • CHRISTIAN DUNN: In a nutshell, the Print on Demand range is Black Library's opportunity to not only bring back many of the out-of-print novels from our ten year back catalogue but also introduce new titles that we don't think fit our main range but know that readers would like to see.

    EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Christian Dunn on Black Library's New Print on Demand Book Line 2010

  • CHRISTIAN DUNN: In a nutshell, the Print on Demand range is Black Library's opportunity to not only bring back many of the out-of-print novels from our ten year back catalogue but also introduce new titles that we don't think fit our main range but know that readers would like to see.

    February 2010 2010

  • I've gone the Montemorelos/Linares backroads route before but find that the trip through the mountain range is quite slow.

    Best route from McAllen to SMA 2002

  • I've gone the Montemorelos/Linares backroads route before but find that the trip through the mountain range is quite slow.

    Best route from McAllen to SMA 2002

  • The human female has been restricted in range from the earliest beginning.

    Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution 1898

  • Fines for not getting the tag range from $30 to $200.

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

  • Fines for not getting the tag range from $30 to $200.

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

  • GameStats, which monitors the popularity of videogames based on a wide spectrum of metrics, the press and gamer scores for the title range from 8.4 to 8.6 (out of 10), which suggests strong word of mouth stayed sales through the holiday season.

    IGN Xbox 360 2010

Comments

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  • noun

    (of prices, products) gamme f;

    (of activities) éventail m, choix m;

    (of radar, weapon) portée f (of de);

    US (prairie) prairie f;

    (of mountains) chaîne f;

    (stove) (wood) fourneau m;

    (also shooting ~) champ m de tir.

    intransitive verb

    (vary) varier (between entre)

    See: rangé

    October 24, 2008

  • Does anyone know how a stove got to be a range?

    November 16, 2009