scale
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skeɪl/
ipa: [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
ipa: /skæɪl/
ipa: [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
rhymes: -eɪl
Forms: form: scales
Etymology: From Middle English scale, from Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *skand-slā, from scandō (“I climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.
Senses: glosses: A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
examples: text: Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
text: The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale.
glosses: An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
examples: text: There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
text: We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
ref: 2012 January 24, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2012, page 23:
glosses: Size; scope.
examples: text: This map uses a scale of 1:10.
glosses: The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
examples: text: Even though precision can be carried to an extreme, the scales which now are drawn in (and usually connected to an appropriate figure by an arrow) will allow derivation of meaningful measurements.
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page ix:
glosses: A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
examples: text: the decimal scale, the binary scale
glosses: A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.
examples: text: There is a certain scale of duties […] which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
ref: 1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC:
text: City's players and supporters travelled from one end of the emotional scale to the other in those vital seconds, providing a truly remarkable piece of football theatre and the most dramatic conclusion to a season in Premier League history.
ref: 2012 May 13, Phil McNulty, “Man City 3-2 QPR”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
examples: text: Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.
glosses: A standard amount of money to be paid for a service, for example union-negotiated amounts received by a performer or writer; similar to wage scale or pay grade.
Hyponyms: sense: earthquake
word: Mercalli scale
sense: earthquake
word: Palermo scale
sense: earthquake
word: Richter scale
sense: economy
word: wage scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Arabic scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: blue scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: blues scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: brown soft scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: bugle scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Byzantine Music scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: chromatic scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: diatonic scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: diminished scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: dodecuple scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Enhanced Fujita scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: gapped scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: hair scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Istrian scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: major scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: minor scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: modal scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: moment magnitude scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: musical scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: octatonic scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: pentatonic scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Persian scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: Phrygian dominant scale
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: whole-tone scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Celsius scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Delisle scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Fahrenheit scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Kelvin scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: length scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Newton scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Planck scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Rankine scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Rankin scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Réaumur scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: Rømer scale
topics: physics
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: timescale
topics: psychology
human-sciences
sciences
word: Kinsey scale
sense: others
word: absolute scale
sense: others
word: Antoniadi scale
sense: others
word: Bark scale
sense: others
word: Baumé scale
sense: others
word: Beaufort scale
sense: others
word: Beck Hopelessness Scale
sense: others
word: Beck's scale
sense: others
word: Bortle scale
sense: others
word: Bristol stool scale
sense: others
word: Byzantine scale
sense: others
word: check scale
sense: others
word: communicable scale
sense: others
word: cosmological scale
sense: others
word: diagonal scale
sense: others
word: dynamic scale
sense: others
word: engineer's scale
sense: others
word: ensign scale
sense: others
word: felt scale
sense: others
word: Fitzpatrick scale
sense: others
word: F-scale
sense: others
word: Fujita-Pearson scale
sense: others
word: Fujita scale
sense: others
word: Garn scale
sense: others
word: Hamilton-Norwood scale
sense: others
word: Holmes-Rahe scale
sense: others
word: HO scale
sense: others
word: Indian wax scale
sense: others
word: Kardashev scale
sense: others
word: Likert scale
sense: others
word: Ludwig scale
sense: others
word: medium scale integration
sense: others
word: megascale
sense: others
word: Mohs' scale
sense: others
word: Mohs scale
sense: others
word: Norwood scale
sense: others
word: not-to-scale
sense: others
word: N scale
sense: others
word: ordinal scale
sense: others
word: Pauling scale
sense: others
word: pay scale
sense: others
word: pernicious scale
sense: others
word: Pomeroy scale
sense: others
word: Prader scale
sense: others
word: Quigley scale
sense: others
word: ratio scale
sense: others
word: Ravel scale
sense: others
word: reducing scale
sense: others
word: Rockwell scale
sense: others
word: Saffir-Simpson scale
sense: others
word: scale-down
sense: others
word: scale-up
sense: others
word: Scoville scale
sense: others
word: Shepard scale
sense: others
word: short scale
sense: others
word: sliding scale
sense: others
word: Tanner scale
sense: others
word: tone scale
sense: others
word: Torino scale
sense: others
word: to-scale
sense: others
word: Wentworth scale
sense: others
word: wind scale
Coordinate terms: sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: cartographic ratio
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: extent
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: focus
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: grain
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: range
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: resolution
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: size
sense: geography: Terms related to scale
word: support
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: dominant
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: leading note
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: mediant
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: octave interval
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: subdominant
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: submediant
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: supertonic
sense: music: Terms related to scale
word: tonic
Derived terms: altered scale
at scale
diseconomies of scale
economies of scale
full-scale
global-scale
gray-scale
Gunter's scale
industrial scale
Internet-scale
large-scale
long scale
medium-scale
microscale
milliscale
off the scale
Raglan's scale
returns to scale
room-scale
salary scale
scale bar
scalebound
scale cube
scale degree
scalefree
scale height
scale invariance
scale model
scale modeler
scale ruler
small-scale
thumb on the scale
time scale
timescale
to scale
ultra large scale integration
upscale
very large scale integration
wafer-scale integration
widescale
wide-scale
Related terms: degree
ordinal variable