scale
An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
Noun 4 meanings
An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
“Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.”
Size; scope.
“There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.”
The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
“This map uses a scale of 1:10.”
A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
Verb 4 meanings
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.
“We should scale that up by a factor of 10.”
To climb to the top of.
“Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.”
To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
“That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.”
To handle heavily increasing loads without breaking down.
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.
Similar and opposite words
SCALE at a glance
SCALE has 5 letters and scores 7 points in Scrabble (S 1 + C 3 + A 1 + L 1 + E 1) and 9 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #1,531 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with scale
All rhymesOne letter away
- SCARE7
- SHALE8
- SCALP9
- STALE5
- SCALA7
- SCALY10
- SCAPE9
- SCALD8
- SWALE8
- SCALL7
- SPALE7
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