different between proportion vs symmetry

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

English

Etymology

From Latin symmetria, from Ancient Greek ????????? (summetría), from ????????? (súmmetros, “symmetrical”), from ??? (sún, “with”) + ?????? (métron, “measure”). Synchronically, syn- +? -metry.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: s??m?tr?, IPA^(key): /?s?m?t?i/

Noun

symmetry (countable and uncountable, plural symmetries)

1. Exact correspondence on either side of a dividing line, plane, center or axis.
2. The satisfying arrangement of a balanced distribution of the elements of a whole.

Related terms

• symmetric

Translations

References