Meaning & use
ladder
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Meanings
nouncountable
A portable or fixed set of steps made of two upright sides with crossbars between them, which you climb to reach a higher place.
Grammar: A countable noun: a ladder, two ladders.
Patterns
- climb a ladder
- lean a ladder against something
He leaned the ladder against the wall and climbed up to clean the gutter.
The firefighters raised a long ladder to the second-floor window.
Please hold the ladder while I change the light bulb.
nouncountablefigurative
A series of levels or ranks through which a person can rise in a job, group or system.
Grammar: Usually used with a defining phrase: the career ladder, the social ladder.
Patterns
- climb the ladder
- the bottom rung of the ladder
She worked her way up the corporate ladder from assistant to director.
Housing prices make it hard for young buyers to step onto the property ladder.
He started on the lowest rung of the ladder in the kitchen.
nouncountableBritish
In tights or stockings, a long vertical line of broken threads, which spreads from a small tear.
Grammar: A mainly British use; American English says a run in the stocking.
Patterns
- get a ladder in something
I caught my tights on the chair and got a ladder in them.
A small ladder on her stocking spread all the way down to her ankle.
Word forms
| plural | ladders |
|---|
Common combinations
- climb a ladder
- Be careful when you climb a ladder in wet weather.
- step ladder
- A step ladder is enough for reaching the top shelf.
- corporate ladder
- He is climbing the corporate ladder faster than anyone in his year.
- property ladder
- Their small flat was a first step onto the property ladder.
- rope ladder
- The children built a tree house with a rope ladder.
- top of the ladder
- The manager had reached the top of the ladder after twenty years.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stepladder
- A stepladder is a freestanding folding ladder with flat steps, so it is a specific kind of ladder, not a general word.
- hierarchy
- Hierarchy names the whole ranked system in a formal way, while ladder stresses the idea of moving up it step by step.
- stairs
- Stairs are a fixed indoor or outdoor part of a building with wide steps, whereas a ladder is narrower, steeper and often portable.
Word family
Commonly confused: ladder or latter?
ladder vs latter
Latter means the second of two things mentioned, and it sounds a little like ladder in fast US speech, but it is an adjective with a different spelling.
Practice
Which sentence uses ladder in its figurative sense?
Choose one answer.
Climbing the career ladder means rising through ranks at work. The other sentences refer to a real object you can touch.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ladder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.