range1
/reɪn(d)ʒ
/noun
1The area of variation between upper and lower limits on a particular scale: the cost will be in the range of $1-5 million a day grand hotels were outside my price range...
- Acceptable settlements may fall within a broad range of upper and lower limits.
- There is a general decrease in rainfall and an increase in the range of temperatures experienced as one moves away from the coast.
- Accordingly, there is wide variation in the range of sentences for this offence.
Synonyms
span, scope, compass, radius, scale, gamut, reach, sweep, extent, area, field, orbit, ambit, province, realm, domain, horizon, latitude;
limits, bounds, confines, parameters
1.1The scope of a person’s knowledge or abilities: in this film he gave some indication of his range...
- Few scientists can match the range, depth and scope of his biodiversity knowledge.
- Since then, she has gained a vast range of knowledge in all things equine.
- The play shows her range and ability as a serious actor.
1.2The compass of a person’s voice or a musical instrument: she was gifted with an incredible vocal range...
- The source of this parallel intoning of liturgical melody may be traced to the natural range of the human voice.
- For the most part, the vocal ranges are narrow and would be suitable for all voice parts.
- He has what is possibly one of the best male voices and ranges in the pop music world at the moment.
1.3The period of time covered by something such as a forecast.The economy had reached a turning point, and during the forecast's range, it would end up in an economic recovery phase....
- The accuracy of the method varies within reasonable limits depending on the time range of the forecast for different conditions.
1.4The area covered by or included in something: a guide to the range of debate this issue has generated...
- The range of discourse and debate in news media, though woefully constricted, is still meaningful.
- He takes pains to limit the range and reach of his case against censorship.
- Between them, these two stories give an indication of the range in which his creative genius worked.
1.5 Mathematics The set of values that a given function can take as its argument varies.The graph window automatically sizes itself to fit the ranges of values of x and f that occur....
- The following commands are useful in understanding the ranges of values of p for which a given strategy is best.
- You also have to assign the core terms numerical values or ranges.
2A set of different things of the same general type: the area offers a wide range of activities for the tourist the company’s new carpet range...
- The centre has a wide range of classes and activities to choose from for both adults and children.
- The new savings schemes will offer a range of different investment options.
- The bank can offer a full range of products, including trade finance, securities trading and foreign exchange.
Synonyms
assortment, variety, diversity, mixture, collection, array, set, selection, choice, pick;
kind, sort, type, class, rank, order, genus, species
3The distance within which a person can see or hear: something lurked just beyond her range of vision...
- The selected respondent should not have been within hearing range of any previous respondents.
- Play this album and everybody within hearing range is guaranteed to gasp at some point " ooh, I love this one".
- Helen looked around us, making sure no one was following us or within hearing range of what she was about to say.
3.1The maximum distance to which a gun will shoot or over which a missile will travel: these rockets have a range of 30 to 40 miles a duck came within range...
- The maximum range of those rockets was just over five miles.
- Correspondents say this is a substantial addition to the previously announced range of the country's missiles.
- The minimum and maximum ranges of the missile are 5km and 130 km.
3.2The maximum distance at which a radio transmission can be effectively received: planets within radio range of Earth...
- Look for us calling in once we get back into radio range in a few days.
- Often truck convoys and support units were out of range of each other's radios.
- He was almost in radio range, but he decided to take a break at the Hangman's Pit.
3.3The distance that can be covered by a vehicle or aircraft without refuelling: the vans have a range of 125 miles...
- They warned that by 1948 increased enemy aircraft ranges would permit the extension of these attacks.
- The vehicle has a range of 214 miles with a maximum speed of 40mph.
- The truck's range is great, with the fuel light coming on at around 360 miles.
3.4The distance between a camera and the subject to be photographed: handheld shots taken at extreme telephoto ranges can be pretty wobbly affairs...
- Matters are not helped by the fact that the cameras have a range of only 20 yards.
- Its cameras tend to have the highest optical zoom ranges.
- Don't go past the camera's optical zoom range, or you'll be sorry!
4A line or series of mountains or hills: a mountain range...
- Eastwards the ridge opened out in a series of bumps, dips and peaks, more like a small range of mountains than one single hill.
- By midafternoon they had reached the summit of the first range of mountains, and stopped to rest the horses.
- Ministers face legal action by a local authority for excluding a range of mountains from the Cairngorms National Park.
Synonyms
row, chain;
sierra, cordillera, ridge, massif;
line, file, rank, string, series
4.1 (ranges) Australian /NZ Mountainous or hilly country: no one would know if he had survived to live out his life in the ranges back from the river country...
- Toward central Australia, the land rises more steeply into a higher plateau and rocky ranges, where a number of peaks exceed 1500 m elevation.
- Because walkers can enter and exit the track at numerous locations, including the many gaps and gorges along the ranges, it isn't necessary to complete the whole walk to experience the trail's magic.
- Railways made it possible for people living in the ranges to attend race meetings in nearby towns, visit a nearby doctor or a hospital or even make a trip to Port Augusta or Adelaide.
5A large area of open land for grazing or hunting: on dude ranches, tourists put on crisp new western gear to ride the range...
- Ranchers have to be careful not to put too many cattle on these ranges because overgrazing can lead to erosion.
- Russian knapweed is a problem in ranges and pastures in the western United States, where it grows up to 4 feet tall and takes over otherwise productive land.
- The owner of the range sold out, but he bought new land to open a replacement range.
Synonyms
pasture, pasturage, pastureland, grass, grassland, grazing land, ley, paddock, croft
literary lea, mead, greensward, sward
Scottish & Northern English shieling, bent;
Irish & Canadian bawn;
Australian/New Zealand run;
South African veld;
in Switzerland alp;
in France bocage;
in South America potrero
5.1An area of land or sea used as a testing ground for military equipment: the cost of dealing with unexploded shells and bombs on former military ranges...
- A Tory MP has demanded an urgent inquiry after a leaked document revealed radioactive materials were tested at Shoebury's military ranges in the 1940s and 1950s.
- All the U.S. military services use the range at one time or another for a variety of training needs.
- The U.S. military left firing ranges in the Panama Canal Zone littered with thousands of unexploded rounds.
5.2An open or enclosed area with targets for shooting practice: he went down to the ranges to practise shooting...
- I want to buy a shotgun and start going to the range.
- This person has the title of ‘Field Captain’ and controls the shooting on the range.
- The gun club has some of the best target ranges in the world but has been forced to use a wartime prefab as an office and clubhouse.
5.3The area over which a plant or animal is distributed: the chimpanzee extensively overlaps the gorilla in its forest range...
- The pine barrens of New Jersey is the northernmost range of 109 southern plant species.
- Another option is to look at creating corridors between protected lands as a way of expanding the animals' ranges.
- These routes used by migratory birds for passage between wintering and breeding ranges are called flyways.
6A large cooking stove with burners or hotplates and one or more ovens, all of which are kept continually hot: a wood-burning kitchen range...
- The kitchen has an Aga range, wooden shelves and storage spaces throughout.
- They've installed oil-fired ranges and stoves.
- I remember clearly my mother's kitchen with a coal range and the hot water cylinder alongside with a tap on it for hot water.
Synonyms
stove, cooking stove, kitchen stove
trademark Aga
6.1North American An electric or gas cooker.They use much less energy than electric ranges....
- With both types of electric ranges, the dials on the back can be in the way when you try to put a very large pot on a rear burner.
- During the Depression in 1931 the company began manufacturing the well-known Atlas electric ranges.
7A row of buildings: Townesend’s Durham quadrangle range at Trinity College...
- When Pawson first visited the site five years ago, it comprised a derelict Baroque manor house with ranges of agricultural buildings that framed a large courtyard.
- To the rear of the house are two ranges of traditional farm buildings, characterised by attractive arches.
- It has a delightful old stone bridge, and a fine range of quayside buildings.
7.1A continuous stretch of a building.A second parallel range, on the north side, was added a little later in brick, creating a central courtyard....
- Restoration work on the hall and south range began in June last year.
- The south range, with a prospect over the sea, was probably the principal residence, though now inaccessible to archaeology.
8 [mass noun] archaic The direction or position in which something lies: the range of the hills and valleys is nearly from north to south...
- There are in these strata many faults or irregularities, by which the due range of the strata is thrown out of course.
- Direct all the other Stakes according to the Range of the first.
verb
1 [no object, with adverbial] Vary or extend between specified limits: prices range from £30 to £100...
- The 115 residential units vary in size and in price level, ranging from about $750 to $1750 a month.
- Prices ranged from £25 for a proof of age card to £240 for a set of fake exam qualifications.
- Sample sizes of individual studies varied, ranging from 39 to 220, but tended to be larger than those used in previous work.
2 [with object and adverbial] Place or arrange in a row or rows or in a specified manner: a table with half a dozen chairs ranged around it...
- After she'd gone he had drawn up a scorecard, ranging her qualities on one side - her intellectual gifts and vivid, racy conversation - and on the other all the vicious things she'd said.
- The percussionists are ranged round the auditorium, the seats within being arranged to face several different ways.
- We ranged ourselves decoratively across the stairs.
Synonyms
line up, align, draw up, put/set in order, order, place, position, arrange, dispose, set out, array, rank
2.1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Run or extend in a line in a particular direction: he regularly came to the benches that ranged along the path...
- The lines of people ranged all the way down the long hallway.
- Mellow lights appeared in the old white villas ranged along the beach.
- A curvy center corridor links the public rooms that range along Apollon Deck.
2.2 Printing, British (With reference to type) align or be aligned, especially at the ends of successive lines.The type, ranged left, is aligned to the right of this axis....
- With columns this narrow, it is better to range the type left.
- The all-lowercase type is ranged both left and right on the vertical axis.
3 (range someone against or be ranged against) Place oneself or be placed in opposition to (a person or group): Japan ranged herself against the European nations...
- The Italian question ranged Austria against Italy, which claimed the Austrian province of Venetia, and allied with Prussia in April 1866 to get it.
- He was left to represent himself in court, where he was ranged against council and Barbican Venture lawyers.
- Britain, Piedmont-Sardinia, the United Provinces, and Austria were ranged against them.
4 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (Of a person or animal) travel or wander over a wide area: patrols ranged deep into enemy territory [with object]: tribes who ranged the windswept lands of the steppe (as adjective, in combination -ranging) free-ranging groups of baboons...
- Mosquitoes breed in static water and the emerging adults can range up to two miles.
- This species once ranged over an enormous area.
- He knew that the cat had once ranged throughout the Southwest.
Synonyms
roam, rove, traverse, travel, journey, wander, stray, drift, ramble, meander, amble, stroll, traipse, walk, hike, trek, backpack
rare peregrinate
4.1(Of a person’s eyes) pass from one person or thing to another: his eyes ranged over them...
- She noticed his eyes ranging over her body.
- He let his eyes range freely up and down her body, lingering particularly on her legs.
- My eyes range over the familiar faces and I receive nods and smiles from every direction.
4.2(Of something written or spoken) cover a wide number of different topics: tutorials ranged over a variety of subjects...
- After the meal, they had sat in the front room and the conversation had ranged over a wide variety of topics.
- The discussions ranged over a wide variety of subjects, but it was the philosophy of medicine that attracted the largest numbers.
- Our discussion ranged over a huge array of topics.
5 [no object] Obtain the range of a target by adjustment after firing past it or short of it, or by the use of radar or laser equipment: radar-type transmissions which appeared to be ranging on our convoys...
- The time between laser ranging the target and firing is approximately two seconds.
- Since artillery is not being used much, do the fire support teams still have the ground-laser teams used for ranging and target identification?
- Flash-to-bang time, laser ranging, and map estimation cannot be used.
5.1 [with adverbial] (Of a projectile) cover a specified distance.Prithvi II is the air force version and Prithvi III the naval version of the missile ranging up to 250 and 750 km respectively....
- The missiles are capable of ranging over 8000 meters.
5.2 [with adverbial] (Of a gun) send a projectile over a specified distance.A 12" gun can range past 30000 yards....
- The gun can range to about 23km.
Phrases
at a range of
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'line of people or animals'): from Old French range 'row, rank', from rangier 'put in order', from rang 'rank'. Early usage also included the notion of 'movement over an area'.
Rhymes
rangé2
/ˈrɒ̃ʒeɪ/ /rɒ̃ˈʒeɪ/adjective literary
(Of a person or their lifestyle) orderly; settled: it’s possible for girls to be too rangé by comparison with Strachey, Keynes was rangé
Origin
French, literally 'in order', past participle of ranger.