proportion
/pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.11 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The relation of one part to another or to the whole with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "“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,[…]!”"
- "Let the women[…]do the same things in their proportions and capacities."
- "the proportion of the parts of a building, or of the body"
- "The image of Christ made in Pilate's time after his own proportion."
- "Formed in the best proportions of her sex."
- "The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold."
Etymology
From Middle English proporcion, from Old French proportion, from Latin prōportiō (“comparative relation, proportion, symmetry, analogy”), from pro (“for, before”) + portio (“share, part”); see portion. By surface analysis, pro- + portion.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: proporcion, proportion, prōportiō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
- British English: /pɹəˈpɔːʃən/