Final answer:
In Java, converting a lower-ranked value to a higher-ranked type is called a widening conversion. This conversion is automatic and does not require an explicit cast. It is different from narrowing conversion, typecast, or bitwise operation.
Step-by-step explanation:
When Java converts a lower-ranked value to a higher-ranked type, this process is known as a widening conversion. This type of conversion is automatic and implicit because the target type is larger and thus there's no risk of data loss. For example, converting an int to a double is a widening conversion since double can contain all possible int values without loss of precision.
In contrast, a narrowing conversion would be from a higher-ranked type to a lower one, like double to int, which requires an explicit cast because there is a potential for data loss due to the smaller size of the target type. A typecast is an operation in which the programmer explicitly tells the compiler to convert a value to a specified type. A bitwise operation uses binary arithmetic to perform bit-level operations on data, which is different from type conversion.