Definition of degree

• n. - A step, stair, or staircase.
• n. - One of a series of progressive steps upward or downward, in quality, rank, acquirement, and the like; a stage in progression; grade; gradation; as, degrees of vice and virtue; to advance by slow degrees; degree of comparison.
• n. - The point or step of progression to which a person has arrived; rank or station in life; position.
• n. - Measure of advancement; quality; extent; as, tastes differ in kind as well as in degree.
• n. - Grade or rank to which scholars are admitted by a college or university, in recognition of their attainments; as, the degree of bachelor of arts, master, doctor, etc.
• n. - A certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; one remove in the chain of relationship; as, a relation in the third or fourth degree.
• n. - Three figures taken together in numeration; thus, 140 is one degree, 222,140 two degrees.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A division, space, or interval, marked on a mathematical or other instrument, as on a thermometer.
• n. - A line or space of the staff.