scale

English Online Dictionary. What means scale‎? What does scale mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /skeɪl/, [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /skæɪl/, [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
• Hyphenation: sc‧ale
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

2. (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
4. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.

6. Size; scope.
8. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.

10. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
12. (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
14. A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.

    the decimal scale, the binary scale

16. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
18. 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

• (earthquake): Mercalli scale, Palermo scale, Richter scale
• (economy): wage scale

• (psychology): Kinsey scale

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

Translations

See also

• degree
• ordinal variable

References

• scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

2. (transitive) 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.

3. (transitive) To climb to the top of.
4. (intransitive, computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.

5. (transitive) To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.

Hyponyms

• scale back
• scale down
• scale out
• scale up

Related terms

• scaling ladder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skalō. Cognate with Old English sċealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale.

Noun

scale (countable and uncountable, plural scales)

2. 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.

   Hyponyms: fish scale, fish-scale, fishscale
3. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
4. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
5. 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.
6. (uncountable) The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.

   Hyponym: mill scale

7. Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
8. (uncountable) Limescale.
9. A scale insect.
10. The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
11. (uncountable, US) An infestation of scale insects on a plant; commonly thought of as, or mistaken for, a disease.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

Translations

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

1. (transitive) To remove the scales of.

   Synonym: descale

2. (intransitive) To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.

3. (transitive) To strip or clear of scale; to descale.

4. (transitive) To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
   • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth

     if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even

5. (intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
6. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
7. (transitive) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.

Derived terms

• scale off

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English scale, from Old Norse skál (“bowl”) from Proto-Germanic *skēlō. Compare Danish skål (“bowl, cup”), Dutch schaal, German Schale, Old High German scāla, Old English scealu (“cup”).

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. A device to measure mass or weight.

2. Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

Usage notes

• The noun is often used in the plural to denote a single device (originally a pair of scales had two pans).

Derived terms

• platform scale
• sample scale
• suspension scale
• tip the scale
• torsion scale
• turn the scale

Descendants

• → Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

Translations

Further reading

• scale up on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “scale”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “scale”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “scale”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• -clase, Celas, Salce, acles, alecs, claes, laces, selca

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈska.le/
• Rhymes: -ale
• Hyphenation: scà‧le

Noun

scale f pl

1. plural of scala

Anagrams

• calse, salce

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French escale.

Alternative forms

• skale, scalle

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskaːl(ə)/

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. flake

Descendants

• English: scale
• Yola: skaulès, scaules (plural)

References

• “scāle, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Latin scāla.

Alternative forms

• skale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. ladder

Descendants

• English: scale
  • → Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

References

• “scāle, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse skál (“bowl”) from Proto-Germanic *skēlō.

Alternative forms

• shale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. hut, hovel

References

• “scāle, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.