Proportion

//pɹəˈpɔɹʃən// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

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

    "“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. 2
    harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole (as in a design) wordnet
  3. 3
    Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to the whole. uncountable
  4. 4
    magnitude or extent wordnet
  5. 5
    Proper or equal share. countable

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

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  1. 6
    the relation between things (or parts of things) with respect to their comparative quantity, magnitude, or degree wordnet
  2. 7
    The relation of one part to another or to the whole with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree. countable, uncountable

    "the proportion of the parts of a building, or of the body"

  3. 8
    the quotient obtained when the magnitude of a part is divided by the magnitude of the whole wordnet
  4. 9
    A statement of equality between two ratios. countable
  5. 10
    balance among the parts of something wordnet
  6. 11
    The "rule of three", in which three terms are given to find a fourth. archaic, countable, uncountable
  7. 12
    Size. countable, in-plural

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To divide into proper shares; to apportion. transitive

    "In order to proportion the braking force to the weight carried by a wheel - a matter of special importance in the braking of wagons - variable leverage systems are now being introduced in which the end of one axle spring is linked to a control spring in the change-over valve, so automatically varying the leverage exerted by the brake-rod according to whether the wagon is full or empty."

  2. 2
    adjust in size relative to other things wordnet
  3. 3
    To form symmetrically. transitive
  4. 4
    give pleasant proportions to wordnet
  5. 5
    To set or render in proportion. transitive
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  1. 6
    To correspond to. archaic, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
symmetryaccommodateaccordacreageadaptaddition

Example

More examples

"You will progress in proportion to your abilities."

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.

Related phrases

blow out of proportionblow out of proportionscompound proportiondivine proportiongolden proportionharmonic proportionin proportioninverse proportionof Koranic proportionsout of all proportionout of proportionreciprocal proportion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.