(education) A gradual upward trend in grades awarded to students during the decades since the mid-20th century, reported in a number of countries and at a number of levels of schooling and sometimes offered as evidence of a decline in academic standards.

A level indicating a base salary (in the US applying to military and government employees).

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a root characterised by the presence of the */e/ phoneme.

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a Proto-Indo-European root, characterised by the presence of the */o/ vowel phoneme in place of */e/.

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a root characterized by the absence of the basic ablauting vowel phonemes */e/ and */o/.

plural of grade school

(construction) A horizontal placement of concrete directly over a prepared earth substrate.

(military) Each of the commissions which rank a (para)military officer below the (highest) class of general officers, but above other commissioned officers and NCOs.

simple past tense and past participle of make the grade

To use a grading system based on the scale of performance of a group to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject; to curve a grade.