scale

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The size or extent of something, especially when it is large.

   They had never seen destruction on such a scale.

2. 2
   noun

   A range of levels used for measuring or comparing.

   Please rate the service on a scale of one to ten.

3. 3
   noun

   The relationship between the size of a map or model and the real thing.

   The map is drawn to a scale of one to fifty thousand.

4. 4
   verb

   To climb up something high and steep.

   The climbers scaled the cliff before dawn.

5. 5
   verb

   To change the size of something according to a fixed proportion.

   The plans were scaled down to save money.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Scale has three principal histories in English. The words for a fish’s covering and a weighing instrument share an ancestry connected with shell; the weighing sense comes from Old Norse skál, “bowl,” probably through the use of bowls as weighing pans. The musical and measuring senses instead derive from Latin scala, “ladder,” from the root of scandere, “to climb.”

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.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary