Dictionaries › English

ladder

Pronunciation: /ˈlad.ə/

The English word “ladder” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened rungs (cross strips or rounds acting as steps).
  2. A series of stages by which one progresses to a better position.
  3. The hierarchy or ranking system within an organization, such as the corporate ladder.
  4. A length of unravelled fabric in a knitted garment, especially in nylon stockings; a run.
  5. A sequence of moves following a zigzag pattern and ultimately leading to the capture of the attacked stones.
  6. A league table.

verb

  1. To arrange or form into a shape of a ladder.
  2. To ascend (a building, a wall, etc.) using a ladder.
  3. Of a knitted garment: to develop a ladder as a result of a broken thread.
  4. To close in on a target with successive salvos, increasing or decreasing the shot range as necessary.
  5. To corruptly coerce a convicted offender to admit to offences to be taken into consideration which they do not actually believe they committed, as a way to artificially increase the rate of solved crimes.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ladder, laddre; from Old English hlǣder, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaidriju, from Proto-Germanic *hlaidrijō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlóydʰrom, from *ḱley- (“to lean”). Compare Scots ledder, North Frisian ladder, Saterland Frisian Laadere, West Frisian ljedder, Dutch ladder, German Leiter; also Old Irish clithar (“hedge”), and Umbrian 𐌊𐌋𐌄𐌈𐌓𐌀𐌌 (kleθram,…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “ladder” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.