English Explanatory Dictionary

scale

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
  2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
  3. Size; scope.
  4. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
  5. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
  6. A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
  7. A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.
  8. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
  9. 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.
verb
  1. To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion; especially to change a process in order to produce much larger amounts of the final product.
  2. To climb to the top of.
  3. To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
  4. To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
  5. To take measurements from (an engineering drawing), treating them as (or as if) reliable dimensional instructions.
noun
  1. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard pieces of keratin covering the skin of an animal, particularly a fish or reptile.
  2. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
  3. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
  4. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard protective layers forming a pinecone that flare when mature to release pine nut seeds.
  5. The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
  6. Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
  7. Limescale.
  8. A scale insect.
  9. The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
  10. An infestation of scale insects on a plant; commonly thought of as, or mistaken for, a disease.
verb
  1. To remove the scales of.
  2. To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
  3. To strip or clear of scale; to descale.
  4. To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
  5. To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
  6. To scatter; to spread.
  7. To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
noun
  1. A device to measure mass or weight.
  2. Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

Pronunciation

/skeɪl/ [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-scale.wav en-us-scale.ogg /skæɪl/ [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ] en-au-scale.ogg

Word forms

scale scales scaling scaled

Etymology

From Middle English scale, from Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *skand-slā, from scandō (“to climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.

Synonyms

descale scales

Related words

degree ordinal variable scaling ladder

Derived words

altered scale at scale broadscale counterscale diseconomies of scale economies of scale eigenscale exascale femtoscale fieldscale full-scale gigascale global-scale gray-scale grayscale greyscale Gunter's scale gyroscale hyperscale industrial scale Internet-scale large-scale logscale long scale macroscale medium-scale mesoscale microscale midscale milliscale miniscale multiscale nanoscale off the scale overscale payscale petascale picoscale playscale Raglan's scale returns to scale room-scale salary scale scalation scale bar scalebound scale cube scale degree scalefree scale height scale invariance scalelength scale model scale modeler scale ruler scaleup scalewise scalic scalogram small-scale
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