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scale

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scale¹

  • /skeɪl/ Canada, US, UK
  • [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Canada, US, UK
  • /skæɪl/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

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.

noun scales

  1. obsolete A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
  2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude. Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
  3. Size; scope. There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
  4. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance. This map uses a scale of 1:10.
  5. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced. 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.
  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. the decimal scale, the binary scale
  8. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order. There is a certain scale of duties […] which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
  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. Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.

verb scales · scaling · scaled

  1. 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. We should scale that up by a factor of 10.
  2. transitive To climb to the top of. Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
  3. intransitive To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors. That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.
  4. To handle heavily increasing loads without breaking down. We started using the term “scaling” in place of “growing” around the late 1990s to early 2000s, primarily due to the rise of venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. The term migrated from tech/infrastructure (“can this system scale?”) to startups (“can this business scale?”)
  5. To increase revenues exponentially without proportional increases in costs. We started using the term “scaling” in place of “growing” around the late 1990s to early 2000s, primarily due to the rise of venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. [...] VCs needed a way to describe businesses that could grow exponentially without adding proportional headcount or expense. So sca
  6. transitive To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system. Scaling his present bearing with his past.
  7. transitive To take measurements from (an engineering drawing), treating them as (or as if) reliable dimensional instructions. Every single drawing in the specification has a warning in its title block which reads, "Do not scale this drawing."

scale²

  • /skeɪl/ Canada, US, UK
  • [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Canada, US, UK
  • /skæɪl/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

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 scales

  1. countable, uncountable 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. Fish that, with their fins and shining scales, / Glide under the green wave.
  2. countable, uncountable A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
  3. countable, uncountable A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
  4. countable, uncountable 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. uncountable The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
  6. countable, uncountable Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
  7. uncountable Limescale.
  8. countable, uncountable A scale insect.
  9. countable, uncountable The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
  10. US, uncountable An infestation of scale insects on a plant; commonly thought of as, or mistaken for, a disease. Although of no effect so far as the course of the small outbreak at Nacaugai is concerned it is necessary to add here that the prompt destruction of kavika trees over much of the neighbouring land on Nagasau estate was in all probability an important measure of control and responsible for the freedo

verb scales · scaling · scaled

  1. transitive To remove the scales of. Please scale that fish for dinner.
  2. intransitive To become scaly; to produce or develop scales. The dry weather is making my skin scale.
  3. 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
  4. intransitive To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae. Some sandstone scales by exposure.
  5. Scotland, UK, dialectal To scatter; to spread.
  6. transitive To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder. cannons […]caused to be scaled and loaded

scale³

  • /skeɪl/ Canada, US, UK
  • [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Canada, US, UK
  • /skæɪl/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ] Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

Inherited from Northern Middle English scale (non-Northern scole), 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 scales

  1. A device to measure mass or weight. After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.
  2. Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

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