proportions

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of proportion.

   The architect adjusted the proportions of the building's main facade.

   Sales grew in very different proportions across the three regions.

   Note

   The countable senses of proportion are the ones that take this plural: shares, parts of a whole, ratios, and the mathematician's statements that two ratios are equal. The same spelling also serves the verb's present form. A determiner usually tells them apart. In "the proportions" or "its proportions" the word is a noun. In "she proportions the mix" it is the verb.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialplural

   A person's bodily shape or figure, especially the relative size of its parts.

   The dancer's lean proportions suited the demanding lead role.

   The caricature exaggerated his proportions for comic effect.

   Similarfigure, build, physique, shape, frame

   Note

   In this sense the word lives only in the plural. Someone has slender or ample proportions, never a proportion. It belongs to casual talk about how a body is built, and it suits descriptions where the relative size of the parts matters, as in a caricature or a dancer's frame. Like the flag-maker's term, it never appears in the singular.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of proportion.

   A good chef proportions the spices so no single flavor dominates.

   The layout software automatically proportions the columns to fit the screen.

   Note

   The verb always takes an object: a chef proportions the spices, a designer proportions the columns. Most of its uses mean apportioning or shaping something symmetrically. An archaic use meaning "corresponds to" survives mainly in older prose. It shares its spelling with the plural noun, but a subject in front of it, as in "she proportions," marks it as the verb.

4. 4
   nounplural

   The measurements of a flag, expressed as a ratio of its height to its width.

   The committee set the new flag's proportions at 3:5.

   Naval ensigns often use different proportions from the civil flags ashore.

   Similarratio, dimensions, measurements

   Note

   Vexillology fixes a flag's shape, not its size. The ratio sets the hoist, the edge along the pole, against the fly, the length outward. A 2:3 flag keeps that shape whether it is a desk pennant or a building-sized banner. Two flags with the same design but different proportions can count as distinct versions, which is why the ratio is often specified officially.

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