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Span vs Scale - What's the difference?

span | scale |

In obsolete terms the difference between span and scale

is that span is a pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action while scale is a ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.

As nouns the difference between span and scale

is that span is the space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom while scale is a ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.

As verbs the difference between span and scale

is that span is to traverse the distance between while scale is 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.

As an acronym SPAN

is suicide Prevention Advocacy Network.

span

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) spann

Noun

(en noun)
  • The space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom.
  • Hence, a small space or a brief portion of time.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Yet not to earth's contracted span / Thy goodness let me bound.
  • * Farquhar
    • Life's but a span ; I'll every inch enjoy.
  • * 2007 . Zerzan, John. Silence .
    • The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans ,
  • The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
  • The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
  • (nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
  • (obsolete) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
  • (mathematics) the space of all linear combinations of something
    • Related terms
    * attention span * memory span

    Etymology 2

    Old English spannan

    Verb

    (spann)
  • To traverse the distance between.
    • The suspension bridge spanned the canyon as tenuously as one could imagine.
  • To cover or extend over an area or time period.
    • The parking lot spans three acres.
    The novel spans three centuries.
    World record! 5 GHz WiFi connection spans 189 miles. [http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/27/world-record-5ghz-wifi-connection-spans-189-miles/]
  • * Prescott
    • The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.
  • To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
    • to span''' a space or distance; to '''span a cylinder
  • * Bible, Isa. xiviii. 13
    • My right hand hath spanned the heavens.
  • (mathematics) to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
  • (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
  • To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

    • Etymology 3

    Verb

    (head)
  • (archaic, nonstandard) (spin)
  • *
  • * '>citation
  • *:a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people

    • Anagrams

    * English irregular simple past forms ----

    scale

    English

    (wikipedia scale) {, style="float: right; clear:right;" , , }

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ; see scan, ascend, descend, etc.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
  • An ordered numerical sequence used for measurement.
    • Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
  • Size; scope.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
    • , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=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 Holocaust was insanity on an enormous scale .
    There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
  • The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
    • 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
  • *
    • 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 means of assigning a magnitude.
    • The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale .
  • (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
  • A mathematical base for a numeral system.
    • the decimal scale'''; the binary '''scale
  • Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
  • * Milton
    • There is a certain scale of duties which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012
    • , date=May 13 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Man City 3-2 QPR , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=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.}}
    Derived terms
    * Celsius scale * Fahrenheit scale * Kelvin scale * major scale * microscale * milliscale * minor scale * modal scale * scale invariance * scale model * Richter scale * to scale * wage scale * widescale
    Hyponyms
    * (music) tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note, octave interval * (geography) cartographic ratio, resolution, grain, support, focus, extent, range, size
    See also
    * degree * ordinal variable

    Verb

    (scal)
  • 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.
  • To climb to the top of.
    • Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
    • 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.
  • (computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
    • That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.
  • To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Scaling his present bearing with his past.
    Related terms
    * scale back * scale down * scale up * scaling ladder

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) scale, from (etyl) escale, from (etyl) or another (etyl) source skala /, (etyl) scaglia.

    Noun

    (en 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.
  • * Milton
    • 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.
  • A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
  • A pine nut of a pinecone.
  • The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
  • Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
  • Limescale
  • A scale insect
  • The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
    • Derived terms
    * antiscalant

    Verb

    (scal)
  • To remove the scales of.
    • Please scale that fish for dinner.
  • To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
    • The dry weather is making my skin scale .
  • To strip or clear of scale; to descale.
    • to scale the inside of a boiler
  • To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
  • * T. Burnet
    • if all the mountains were scaled , and the earth made even
  • To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
    • Some sandstone scales by exposure.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • 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.
  • (UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
  • To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
    • (Totten)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) . Cognate with , as in Etymology 2.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device to measure mass or weight.
    • 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.
    • Usage notes
    * The noun is often used in the plural to denote a single device (originally a pair of scales had two pans).

    External links

    (scale up) * *

    Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----