different between scale vs tower

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ske?l/, [ske???]
• Hyphenation: scale
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English scale, from Latin sc?la, usually in plural sc?lae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *scadla, from scand? (“I climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement, means of assigning a magnitude.

   Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.

   The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale.

3. Size; scope.

   There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.

4. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.

   This map uses a scale of 1:10.

5. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
6. (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
7. A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.

   the decimal scale; the binary scale

8. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
9. A standard amount of money to be received by a performer or writer, negotiated by a union.

   Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.

Hyponyms

• (earthquake): Mercalli scale, Palermo scale, Richter scale
• (economy): wage scale

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

See also

• degree
• ordinal variable

References

• scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

2. (transitive) 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.

3. (transitive) To climb to the top of.

   Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot 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.

   • 1932, Dorothy L Sayers, Have his Carcase, Chapter 1.

     A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.

4. (intransitive, computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.

   That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.

5. (transitive) To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.

Hyponyms

• scale back
• scale down
• scale up

Related terms

• scaling ladder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skal?. Cognate with Old English s?ealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale. Also related to English shell, French écaille, Italian scaglia.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

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.

1. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
2. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
3. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard protective layers forming a pinecone that flare when mature to release pine nut seeds.
4. The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
5. Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
6. Limescale.
7. A scale insect.
8. The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.

Derived terms

• antiscalant
• criticola scale

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

1. (transitive) To remove the scales of.

   Please scale that fish for dinner.

   Synonym: descale

2. (intransitive) To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.

   The dry weather is making my skin scale.

3. (transitive) To strip or clear of scale; to descale.

   to scale the inside of a boiler

4. (transitive) To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
   • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth

     if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even

5. (intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.

   Some sandstone scales by exposure.
6. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
7. (transitive) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old Norse skál (“bowl”). Compare Danish skål (“bowl, cup”), Dutch schaal; German Schale; Old High German sc?la; Gothic ???????????????????????? (skalja, “tile, brick”), Old English scealu (“cup; shell”). Cognate with scale, as in Etymology 2.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. A device to measure mass or weight.

   After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.

1. 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).

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• -clase, Salce, acles, alecs, claes, laces, selca

Italian

Noun

scale f pl

1. plural of scala

Anagrams

• calse, salce

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French escale.

Alternative forms

• skale, scalle

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ska?l(?)/

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. flake

Descendants

• English: scale
• Yola: skaulès (plural)

References

• “sc?le, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Latin sc?la.

Alternative forms

• skale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. ladder

Descendants

• English: scale

References

• “sc?le, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse [Term?].

Alternative forms

• shale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. hut, hovel

References

• “sc?le, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Alternative forms

• towre (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English tour, tur, tor, from Old English t?r, tor, torr ("tower; rock"; > English tor) and Old French tour, toer, tor; both from Latin turris (“a tower”).

Compare Scots tour, towr, towre (“tower”), West Frisian toer (“tower”), Dutch toren (“tower”), German Turm (“tower”), Danish tårn (“tower”), Swedish torn (“tower”), Icelandic turn (“tower”), Welsh t?r. Doublet of tor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ta?.?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ta??/
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?)

Noun

tower (plural towers)

1. A very tall iron-framed structure, usually painted red and white, on which microwave, radio, satellite, or other communication antennas are installed; mast.
2. A similarly framed structure with a platform or enclosed area on top, used as a lookout for spotting fires, plane crashes, fugitives, etc.
3. A water tower.
4. A control tower.
5. Any very tall building or structure; skyscraper.

   The Sears Tower

6. (figuratively) Any item, such as a computer case, that is usually higher than it is wide.
7. (informal) An interlocking tower.
8. (figuratively) A strong refuge; a defence.

   • Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

9. (historical) A tall fashionable headdress worn in the time of King William III and Queen Anne.

   • Lay trains of amorous intrigues / In towers, and curls, and periwigs.

10. (obsolete) High flight; elevation.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

11. The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many Tarot decks, usually deemed an ill omen.
12. (cartomancy) The nineteenth Lenormand card, representing structure, bureaucracy, stability and loneliness.

Synonyms

• donjon

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? German: Tower
• ? Hindi: ???? (??var)
• ? Japanese: ??? (taw?)
• ? Korean: ?? (tawo)
• ? Northern Kurdish: tawer
• ? Punjabi: ???? (??var)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English touren, torren, torrien, from Old English *torrian, from the noun (see above).

Verb

tower (third-person singular simple present towers, present participle towering, simple past and past participle towered)

1. (intransitive) To be very tall.

2. (intransitive) To be high or lofty; to soar.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To soar into.

Derived terms

• tower over

See also

• The Tower (Tarot card) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• mast

Etymology 3

From tow +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?t??.?(?)/

Noun

tower (plural towers)

1. One who tows.
   • 1933, Henry Sturmey, H. Walter Staner, The Autocar

     But as the tower and towee reached the cross-roads again, another car, negligently driven, came round the corner, hit the Morris, and severed the tow rope, sending the unfortunate car back again into the shop window […]

Anagrams

• towre, twoer, wrote

Afrikaans

Verb

tower (present tower, present participle towerende, past participle getower)

1. Alternative form of toor.