# scale

Pronunciation: say "SKAYL" US/UK /skeɪl/, AUS /skæɪl/

## Noun

1. The overall size, extent, or scope of something.
   - Simple: How big or wide something is.
   - _The scale of the rescue operation surprised everyone involved._
   - _Few people grasped the scale of the economic crisis at first._
3. A graded series of numbers, steps, or degrees used to measure something or to rank things in order of size, value, or importance.
   - Simple: A range of numbers or levels used to measure something or to rank things from lowest to highest.
   - _The Richter scale measures the strength of earthquakes._
   - _Teachers grade the essays on a five-point scale._
4. A device used to measure the mass or weight of an object.
   - Simple: A tool used to find out how heavy something is.
   - _The butcher weighed the meat on a brass scale._
   - _Digital scales can measure to a tenth of a gram._
5. One of the many small, thin, hard plates that overlap to cover the skin of fish and reptiles, or the tiny similar flakes that cover the wings of butterflies and moths.
   - Simple: One of the small, thin, hard pieces that cover the skin of fish and snakes, or a butterfly's wings.
   - _Each scale on the snake overlapped the next like a tile._
   - _Sunlight glinted off the silver scales of the carp._
6. The ratio between a distance on a map, plan, model, or image and the real distance it represents; also, a marked bar on the map showing this ratio.
   - Simple: How much smaller or bigger a map, model, or picture is than the real thing, or a line showing this.
   - _The architect drew the plans at a scale of one to fifty._
   - _A finer scale lets the map show individual streets._
7. A series of musical notes spanning an octave, used to build melodies.
   - Simple: A set of musical notes arranged in order from low to high.
   - _The whole piece is built on a minor scale._
   - _Beginners learn the major scale before tackling harder pieces._
10. A hard, chalky deposit, mainly calcium carbonate, left by hard water inside kettles, pipes, and boilers.
   - Simple: The hard, chalky layer left behind by hard water in kettles and pipes.
   - _Hard water leaves scale on the heating element over time._
   - _The plumber found the pipe nearly blocked with scale._
13. A standard amount of money paid for a service, such as the union-negotiated rate received by a performer or writer.
   - Simple: A fixed rate of pay set for a job or a service.
   - _The studio paid the writers union scale for the script._
   - _Background performers earn scale plus a small bonus._
15. A small sap-sucking insect that attaches itself to plants beneath a waxy or hard protective covering; also, an infestation of plants by these insects.
   - Simple: A tiny insect that sticks to plants and feeds on their sap, or the plant problem these insects cause.
   - _Tiny scale clustered along the underside of the lemon leaves._
   - _A heavy coating of scale weakened the potted fig._
16. One of the many small, flat, woody plates that overlap to form a pinecone or other conifer cone and open when mature to release the seeds.
   - Simple: One of the hard, flat pieces that make up a pinecone and open to let the seeds out.
   - _When the cone matures, each scale opens outward to release the winged seeds._
   - _The tightly closed scale of a green cone protects the developing seeds._
18. A thin, dry flake of dead skin shed from the surface of the body, especially in abundance as a sign of a skin condition such as psoriasis or dermatitis.
   - Simple: Dry, flaky skin shed by an animal with a skin problem.
   - _The vet found scale across the dog's back where the dermatitis was worst._
   - _Flakes of scale dropped from the sheep as it scratched against the fence._
20. Body armor formed from many small overlapping plates, distinct from the linked rings of chain mail.
   - Simple: Armor made of many small, flat plates that overlap like fish scales.
   - _The reenactor's coat of scale weighed nearly twenty pounds._
   - _Ancient cavalry favored scale for its flexibility over rigid plate._

## Verb

2. To change the size of something while keeping its proportions, especially to expand a process so it produces much larger amounts of the final product.
   - Simple: To make something bigger or smaller while keeping the same shape.
   - _Engineers scaled the prototype into a full production model._
   - _We need to scale the image without distorting it._
8. To keep performing well as workload, demand, or other limiting factors increase significantly.
   - Simple: To keep working well even when there is much more to handle.
   - _The database scales easily as traffic increases._
   - _Cheap solutions rarely scale to enterprise demands._
9. To climb to the top of something, especially something steep or high.
   - Simple: To climb up to the top of something high.
   - _Climbers scale the north face of the mountain every summer._
   - _He scaled the fortress walls under cover of darkness._
11. To weigh, measure, or grade something according to a set scale or system.
   - Simple: To measure, rank, or grade something using a fixed system of levels.
   - _At the mill, trained workers scale each load of logs to work out how many board feet it will yield._
   - _The champion boxer scaled just under two hundred pounds at the official weigh-in._
12. To remove the scales from a fish or a similar animal.
   - Simple: To take the scales off a fish before cooking it.
   - _The cook scaled and gutted the salmon in minutes._
   - _You should scale the fish under running water._
14. To become scaly, or to produce and develop a covering of scales.
   - Simple: To grow a covering of small, hard flakes.
   - _Within a few days, the red patches on his scalp began to scale and itch, so he called a skin doctor._
   - _The patient's elbows scaled after weeks without moisturizer._
17. To remove a hard or flaky buildup from something, such as limescale from a boiler or tartar from teeth, often by scraping it off in thin layers.
   - Simple: To clean off a hard layer that has built up, such as limescale in pipes or tartar on teeth.
   - _Plumbers scale the boiler tubes every spring to keep them clear._
   - _At my checkup, the hygienist scaled my back teeth to get rid of the tartar, which felt strange but didn't hurt._
19. To flake or peel off in thin sheets or layers.
   - Simple: To peel away in thin, flat pieces.
   - _The varnish started to scale where moisture had crept beneath it._
   - _Sheets of oxidized metal scaled from the beam after the fire._
21. To take measurements directly from an engineering drawing, treating them as reliable dimensions even though doing so can give wrong results and is usually discouraged.
   - Simple: To measure sizes directly off a drawing, even though it may not be exact.
   - _Don't scale the drawing; rely on the dimensions printed beside each feature._
   - _He scaled the plan to estimate the beam length and got it slightly wrong._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Either of the pans or dishes of a balance, on which objects or weights are placed.
- (noun) The flaky material sloughed off metal when it is heated.
- (noun) The base of a numeral system; the radix, or number of distinct digits it uses, such as ten for the decimal system.
- (noun) Either of the two thin side pieces, of metal, wood, bone, plastic, or other material, that form the handle of a knife, especially a pocketknife.
- (noun) Something to climb by, such as a ladder or staircase.
- (verb) To strew things widely over an area.
- (verb) To blast out the barrel of a gun with a light charge of powder so that it is clean.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 6–9, 11, 13, 21** — From Middle English "scale," from Latin "scala" (usually plural "scalae," meaning a flight of steps, staircase, or ladder), which came from "scando" ("I climb"); related to words like ascend and descend.
**Meanings 5, 10, 12, 14–20** — Proto-Germanic *skalo gave Frankish and/or Old High German skala, which passed into Old French as escale and into Middle English as scale. Old English sċealu ("shell, husk") is related, as are Dutch schaal and German Schale.
**Meaning 4** — Inherited from Northern Middle English "scale," from Old Norse "skál" ("bowl"), from Proto-Germanic "*skēlō." It is comparable to Danish "skål" (bowl, cup), Dutch "schaal," and German "Schale."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/scale (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).