proportion
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
ipa: /pɹəˈpɔːʃən/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /pɹəˈpo(ː)ɹʃən/
note: non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /pɹəˈpoəʃən/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən
Forms: form: proportions
Etymology: From Middle English proporcion, from Old French proportion, from Latin prōportiō (“comparative relation, proportion, symmetry, analogy”), from pro (“for, before”) + portio (“share, part”); see portion.
Senses: examples: text: “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,[…]!”
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.
glosses: Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to the whole.
examples: text: Let the women[…]do the same things in their proportions and capacities.
ref: 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:
glosses: Proper or equal share.
examples: text: the proportion of the parts of a building, or of the body
text: The image of Christ made in Pilate's time after his own proportion.
ref: 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:
text: Formed in the best proportions of her sex.
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: The relation of one part to another or to the whole with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A statement of equality between two ratios.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The "rule of three", in which three terms are given to find a fourth.
examples: text: The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: What other television show would feature a gorgeously designed sequence where a horrifically mutated Pierre and Marie Curie, their bodies swollen to Godzilla-like proportions from prolonged exposure to the radiation that would eventually kill them, destroy an Asian city with their bare hands like vengeance-crazed monster-Gods?
ref: 2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:
glosses: Size.
Derived terms: blow out of proportion
blow out of proportions
compound proportion
disproportion
disproportionate
divine proportion
equiproportion
harmonic proportion
in proportion
inverse proportion
misproportion
of Koranic proportions
out of all proportion
out of proportion
overproportion
proportionable
proportional
proportionally
proportionate
proportioner
proportionize
proportionless
proportionment
reciprocal proportion
reproportion
superproportion
underproportion
unproportion