proportion
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pruhpawrshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹəˈpɔɹʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
countable
A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.
Harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole (as in a design)
uncountable
Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to the whole.
The quotient obtained when the magnitude of a part is divided by the magnitude of the whole
countable
Proper or equal share.
Magnitude or extent
verb
transitive
To divide into proper shares; to apportion.
transitive
To form symmetrically.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.
Used this way, proportion is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This sense is about measurement, so it is used where accuracy is the point.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use proportion
- “An inordinate proportion of the book is given over to quotations.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Quantity / harmonious
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
One of the quantities in a mathematical proportion.
To a proportionate degree.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The number of cases of a disease ending in death divided by the number of cases of the disease.
The number of cases of a disease divided by the number of infections with the agent that causes the disease.
Law stating that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight.
Law stating that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight.
Law stating that the proportions in which two elements separately combine with a third element are also the proportions in which they combine together.
Law stating that when two elements can combine to form more than one compound the amounts of one of them that combines with a fixed amount of the other will exhibit a simple multiple…
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Being in due proportion.
Representation of all parties in proportion to their popular vote.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.