A method for effectively transmitting/receiving a codeword in a MIMO system is disclosed. In a system including a plurality of predetermined rank structures, a reception end transmits rank information (RI), precoding matrix index (PMI), and channel quality information (CQI) of each codeword to a transmission end. The transmission end selects a rank structure on the basis of information received from the reception end. The transmission end selects only some codeword blocks among a plurality of codeword blocks available for the selected rank structure, transmits signals via the selected codeword blocks, and transmits a null signal for the non-selected codeword blocks.