different between harmony vs proportion

English

Etymology

First attested in 1602. From Middle English armonye, from Old French harmonie/armonie, from Latin harmonia, from Ancient Greek ??????? (harmonía, “joint, union, agreement, concord of sounds”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??m?ni/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??m?ni/
• Homophone: hominy (god-guard merger and weak vowel merger)

Noun

harmony (countable and uncountable, plural harmonies)

1. Agreement or accord.
   • December 4 2010, Evan Thomas, "Why It’s Time to Worry", in Newsweekk

     America's social harmony has depended at least to some degree on economic growth. It is easier to get along when everyone, more or less, is getting ahead.

2. A pleasing combination of elements, or arrangement of sounds.
3. (music) The academic study of chords.
4. (music) Two or more notes played simultaneously to produce a chord.
5. (music) The relationship between two distinct musical pitches (musical pitches being frequencies of vibration which produce audible sound) played simultaneously.
6. A literary work which brings together or arranges systematically parallel passages of historians respecting the same events, and shows their agreement or consistency.

   a harmony of the Gospels

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• harmony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• harmony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle English proporcion, from Old French proportion, from Latin pr?porti? (“comparative relation, proportion, symmetry, analogy”), from pro (“for, before”) + portio (“share, part”); see portion.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /p???p????n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p???p????n/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /p???po(?)???n/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /p???po???n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)??n
• Hyphenation: pro?por?tion

Noun

proportion (countable and uncountable, plural proportions)

1. (countable) A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital, […]!”

2. (uncountable) Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to the whole.
3. (countable) Proper or equal share.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Let the women […] do the same things in their proportions and capacities.

4. The relation of one part to another or to the whole with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     The image of Christ made in Pilate's time after his own proportion.
5. (mathematics, countable) A statement of equality between two ratios.
6. (mathematics, archaic) The "rule of three", in which three terms are given to find a fourth.
7. (countable, chiefly in the plural) Size.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

proportion (third-person singular simple present proportions, present participle proportioning, simple past and past participle proportioned)

1. (transitive) To divide into proper shares; to apportion.
2. (transitive) To form symmetrically.
3. (transitive, art) To set or render in proportion.
4. (transitive, archaic) To correspond to.

Translations

Further reading

• proportion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• proportion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Latin pr?porti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.p??.sj??/

Noun

proportion f (plural proportions)

1. proportion

Derived terms