adj, noun ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A first-rate ship of the line. UK, historical

Adjective

1. 1
   Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having at least 100 guns across three gun decks, a complement of 850–875, and weighing approximately 2,500 tons burthen. UK, historical, not-comparable
2. 2
   Superb, exceptional; of the best sort; very high quality. idiomatic, not-comparable

   "Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German."

Adjective

1. 1
   of the highest quality wordnet

Adverb

1. 1
   quite well wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

a+a-gradea-onea-plusaceace

Antonyms

All antonyms

badcrappocut-rateuncool

Example

More examples

"It is no exaggeration to say that he is a first-rate writer."

Related phrases

first-rateness

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.