Degree Meaning
/dɪˈɡɹiː/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA stage of proficiency or qualification in a course of study, now especially an award bestowed by a university/college, as a certification of academic achievement. (In the United States, can include secondary schools.)
nounA unit of measurement of angle equal to ¹⁄₃₆₀ of a circle's circumference.
Sentence Examples
I agree with you to a degree.
Each is good in its degree.
These fixed prices give farmers a degree of financial security.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She earned a ____ in biology from the university.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I agree with you to a ____.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English degre, borrowed from Old French degré (French: degré), itself from Latin gradus, with the prefix de-.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The chazzan-artist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Eastern Europe where the chazzan reached the highest degree as an artist, casting from himself all those tasks historically associated with his office which drew him down to the station of beadle and servitor of the community."
— 1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 181:
"And they axed hym ſayinge: Maſter / we knowe that thou ſayest / and teacheſt ryght / nether conſidereſt thou eny mãnes degre / but teacheſt the waye of god truely."
— 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xx:[21], folio cx, recto:
"But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
VVho was then a Gentleman.
Brethren, brethren, it were better to haue this communitie,
Then to haue this difference in degrees:
The landlord his rent, the lawyer his fees.
So quickly the poore mans ſubſtance is ſpent […]"
— 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I:
"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."
— 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 140:
"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."
— 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She earned a ____ in biology from the university.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I agree with you to a ____.