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Size vs Scale - What's the difference?

size | scale |

Scale is a hyponym of size.



In obsolete terms the difference between size and scale

is that size is a regulation, piece of ordinance while scale is a ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.

In transitive terms the difference between size and scale

is that size is to apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted while scale is to clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.

In intransitive terms the difference between size and scale

is that size is to take a greater size; to increase in size while scale is to separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.

size

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ).

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete, outside, dialects) An assize.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 560:
    • I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size , that no one is above the law.
  • (obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc.
  • (obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink.
  • * Shakespeare
    • to scant my sizes
  • The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • (obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance.
  • A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing.
  • (graph theory) A number of edges in a graph.
  • (figurative, dated) Degree of rank, ability, character, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
    • men of a less size and quality
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • the middling or lower size of people
  • An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for measuring the size of pearls.
    • (Knight)
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (siz)
  • To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • a statute to size weights, and measures
  • To classify or arrange by size.
  • # (military) To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks according to their stature.
  • # (mining) To sift (pieces of ore or metal) in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.
  • (colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.
  • To take a greater size; to increase in size.
  • * John Donne
    • Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size , grow.
  • (UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.
  • (obsolete) To swell; to increase the bulk of.
    • (Beaumont and Fletcher)

    Etymology 2

    Old Italian , a glue used by painters, shortened from (assisa), from (assiso), to make to sit, to seat, to place.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.
  • Wallpaper paste.
  • The thickened crust on coagulated blood.
  • Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.

    • Verb

    (siz)
  • To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.

    • See also

    * 1000 English basic words

    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 ----