1. One of a series of steps in a process, course, or progression; a stage: rose by degrees from clerk to manager of the store.

2. A step in a direct hereditary line of descent or ascent: First cousins are two degrees from their common ancestor.

3. Relative social or official rank, dignity, or position.

4. Relative intensity or amount, as of a quality or an attribute: a high degree of accuracy.

5. The extent or measure of a state of being, an action, or a relation: modernized their facilities to a large degree.

6. Abbr. deg, deg. A unit division of a temperature scale.

7. Mathematics. A planar unit of angular measure equal in magnitude to 1/360 of a complete revolution.

8. A unit of latitude or longitude, equal to 1/360 of a great circle.

9. Mathematics. a. The greatest sum of the exponents of the variables in a term of a polynomial or polynomial equation. b. The exponent of the derivative of highest order in a differential equation in standard form.

10. a. An academic title given by a college or university to a student who has completed a course of study: received the Bachelor of Arts degree at commencement. b. A similar title conferred as an honorary distinction.

11. Law. A division or classification of a specific crime according to its seriousness: murder in the second degree.

12. A classification of the severity of an injury, especially a burn: a third-degree burn.

13. Grammar. One of the forms used in the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. For example, sweet is the positive degree, sweeter the comparative degree, and sweetest the superlative degree of the adjective sweet.

14. Music. a. One of the seven notes of a diatonic scale. b. A space or line of the staff.