n. A step, as of a stair; a stair, or set of steps.n. A step or single movement toward an end; one of a series of advances; a stage of progress; a phase of development, transformation, or progressive modification.n. Specifically In grammar, one of the three stages, namely, positive, comparative, and superlative, in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb. See comparison, 5.n. The point of advancement reached; relative position attained; grade; rank; station; order; quality.n. In universities and colleges, an academical rank conferred by a diploma, originally giving the right to teach.n. In geneal., a certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood: as, a relation in the third or fourth degree. See first extract, and forbidden degrees, below.n. In algebra, the rank of an equation, as determined by the highest power under which an unknown quantity appears in it.n. One of a number of subdivisions of something extended in space or time.n. In arithmetic, three figures taken together in numeration: thus, the number 270,360 consists of two degrees (more commonly called periods).n. In music: One of the lines or spaces of the staff, upon which notes are placed. Notes on the same degree, when affected by accidentals, may denote different tones, as D, D♮, and D♭; and, similarly, notes on different degrees, as D♭ and C♮, may denote identical tones, at least upon instruments of fixed intonation.n. The difference or step between a line and the adjacent space on the staff (or vice versa). Occasionally, through the use of accidentals, this difference is only apparent (see above).n. The difference, interval, or step between any tone of the scale and the tone next above or below it, as from do to re, from mi to fa. The interval may be a whole step or tone, a half step or semitone, or (in the minor scale) a step and a half, or augmented tone. See step, tone, interval, staff, scale. [To distinguish between degrees of the staff and degrees of the scale, the terms staff-degree and scale-degree are sometimes used.]n. Intensive quantity; the proportion in which any quality is possessed; measure; extent; grade.n. In criminal law: One of certain distinctions in the culpability of the different participants in a crime. The actual perpetrator is said to be a principal in the first degree, and one who is present aiding and abetting, a principal in the second degree.n. One of the phases of the same kind of crime, differing in gravity and in punishment.To advance by a step or steps.To place in a position or rank.n. In physical chemistry, the number of conditions of a thermodynamic system which can be changed independently of each other, without destroying the system by suppressing one of its phases. For example, a system composed of water existing in the two phases, liquid and solid, and depending for equilibrium on the two conditions, temperature and pressure, has one degree of freedom and only one: any desired temperature may be given to it within certain limits, but the pressure is thereby fixed; and any pressure may be established within certain limits, but the temperature is determined in so doing.
