Scale Definition
- minor-scale
- chromatic-scale
- diatonic-scale
- range
- melodic scale
- whole-tone-scale
- major-scale
- harmonic scale
- Danish balance
- stapel scale
- Roman balance
- trebuchet
- scale-beam
- balance
- stilliard
(music): tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note, octave interval.
- to reduce (or increase), often according to a fixed ratio or proportion
- according to established, proportional dimensions
a toy fighter plane built to scale
- Libra, the constellation and seventh sign of the Zodiac
- to give an advantage to one possible outcome over another
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Scale
- scale back
- scale down (or up)
- to scale
- the Scales
- tip the scales
- tip the scales at
- turn the scales
Origin of Scale
-
From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish or another Old High German source skala /scāla. Cognate with Old English scealu (“shell, husk") (See shale and shell). compare French écale, écaille, Italian scaglia.
From Wiktionary
From Old Norse skál (“bowl"). Compare Danish skÃ¥l (“bowl, cup"), Dutch schaal; German Schale; Old High German scāla; Gothic skalja (skalja), Old English scealu (“cup; shell"). Cognate with scale, as in Etymology 2.
From Wiktionary
-
From Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder"), for *scadla, from scandō (“I climb"); see scan, ascend, descend, etc.
From Wiktionary
-
Middle English from Old French escale of Germanic origin skel-1 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
-
Middle English bowl, balance from Old Norse skāl skel-1 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
-
Middle English from Latin scālae ladder skand- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Find Similar Words
Find similar words to scale using the buttons below.