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Added 8 October 2026

scale

/skeɪl/ noun

Categories: Describing WordsPlantsEveryday Words

In Latin: scala Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about scale at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
    Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
  2. Size; scope.
    There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
  3. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
    This map uses a scale of 1:10.

verb

  1. 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.
    We should scale that up by a factor of 10.
  2. To climb to the top of.
    Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
  3. To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
    That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
  3. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.

verb

  1. To remove the scales of.
    Please scale that fish for dinner.
  2. To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
    The dry weather is making my skin scale.
  3. To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.

Origin

From Middle English scale, from Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *skand-slā, from scandō (“to climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: descaleplatesurmountscurfshellrung

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