What is the effective annual rate (EAR)?

A、 It is the interest rate that would earn the same interest with annual compounding.;
B、 It is the ratio of the number of the annual percentage rate to the number of compounding periods per year.;
C、 It is the interest rate for an n-year time interval, where n may be more than one year or less than or equal to one year (a fraction).;
D、It refers to the cash flows from an investment over a one-year period divided by the number of times that interest is compounded during the year.