Adjective

(en adjective)

Well grounded or justifiable, pertinent.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=(Jan Sapp) , title=Race Finished , volume=100, issue=2, page=164 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}

I will believe him as soon as he offers a valid answer.

Acceptable, proper or correct.

A valid format for the date is MM/DD/YY.

Do not drive without a valid license.

Related to the current topic, or presented within context, relevant.

(logic) Of a formula or system: such that it evaluates to true regardless of the input values.

(logic) Of an argument: whose conclusion is always true whenever its premises are true.

An argument is valid if and only if the set consisting of both (1) all of its premises and (2) the contradictory of its conclusion is inconsistent.

Adjective

(military, nautical, historical) Describing a ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gundecks.

(by extension) Exceptionally good.

* (Matthew Arnold)

Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.}}