Pronunciations (4)
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/skeɪl/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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[skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/skæɪl/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
-
[skæɪ̯(ə)ɫ]
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
Noun
A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
Usage- Obsolete
An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
- Examples
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Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale.
Size; scope.
- Examples
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There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
More examples (1)
We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
- Examples
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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.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.
- Examples
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the decimal scale, the binary scale
Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
- Examples
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There is a certain scale of duties […] which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
More examples (1)
City's players and supporters travelled from one end of the emotional scale to the other in those vital seconds, providing a truly remarkable piece of football theatre and the most dramatic conclusion to a season in Premier League history.
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.
- Examples
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Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.
Verb
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.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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We should scale that up by a factor of 10.
To climb to the top of.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
More examples (1)
At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of mad effort—of maniacal effort—I scaled them. I built crude ladders; I wedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife; but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern.
A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.
More examples (1)
The dead leap at the throat, destroy The meaning of the day; dark forms Have scaled your walls, and spies betray Old secrets to amorphous swarms.
To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.
To handle heavily increasing loads without breaking down.
Usage- of systems
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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?”)
To increase revenues exponentially without proportional increases in costs.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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 scalability became the holy grail. The term migrated from tech/infrastructure (“can this system scale?”) to startups (“can this business scale?”) and now everyone from lifestyle brands to DTC businesses use it as a universal term for "make business go big." (By the mid-2010s, “scale” was in every pitch deck and founder tweet, even if what they really meant was: “We’re trying to 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸, but we want to sound smarter so we're using the term "scale".”) This change in language actually had a HUGE effect on the minds of the people who were operating businesses across the globe.
Being able to move swiftly, try new things is critical in startups, so there shouldn't be friction upstream, but you need to make sure you have good process to purge things that don't scale with the rest.
To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Scaling his present bearing with his past.
The kitchen-dining-buffet car scales 49.2 tons.
To take measurements from (an engineering drawing), treating them as (or as if) reliable dimensional instructions.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Every single drawing in the specification has a warning in its title block which reads, "Do not scale this drawing."
Noun
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.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Fish that, with their fins and shining scales, / Glide under the green wave.
A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
Usage- 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.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
Usage- Uncountable
Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Limescale.
Usage- Uncountable
A scale insect.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
An infestation of scale insects on a plant; commonly thought of as, or mistaken for, a disease.
Usage- US usage
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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 freedom from scale of Nagasau estate at the time when Mua was badly attacked.
Verb
To remove the scales of.
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Please scale that fish for dinner.
To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The dry weather is making my skin scale.
To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even
To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Some sandstone scales by exposure.
Those that cast their shell are the lobster and crab; the old skins are found, but the old shells never; so it is likely that they scale off.
To scatter; to spread.
Usage- Scotland
- UK usage
- dialectal
To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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cannons […]caused to be scaled and loaded
Noun
A device to measure mass or weight.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.
Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.
Noun
an ordered reference standard
- Broader terms
- Examples
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judging on a scale of 1 to 10
relative magnitude
- Broader terms
- Examples
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they entertained on a grand scale
the ratio between the size of something and a representation of it
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the scale of the map
the scale of the model
a specialized leaf or bract that protects a bud or catkin
- Synonyms
a thin flake of dead epidermis shed from the surface of the skin
- Synonyms
(music) a series of notes differing in pitch according to a specific scheme (usually within an octave)
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a measuring instrument for weighing; shows amount of mass
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
an indicator having a graduated sequence of marks
- Broader terms
a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)
- Broader terms
a flattened rigid plate forming part of the body covering of many animals
- Broader terms
Verb
measure by or as if by a scale
- Broader terms
- Examples
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This bike scales only 25 pounds
pattern, make, regulate, set, measure, or estimate according to some rate or standard
take by attacking with scaling ladders
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The troops scaled the walls of the fort
reach the highest point of
- Synonyms
- Examples
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We scaled the Mont Blanc
climb up by means of a ladder
remove the scales from
- Synonyms
- Examples
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scale fish
measure with or as if with scales
- Examples
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scale the gold
size or measure according to a scale
- Broader terms
- Examples
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This model must be scaled down