scale
- noun
- /skeɪl/
- It still has all its scales!
- pangolin scales
- scale insects
A flare of red flame in the dusk air, a gleam of red gold scales of vast wings.
- A flare of red flame in the dusk air, a gleam of red gold scales of vast wings.
Examples
-
Behind the queen came more horned men, their mail glittering like fish scales in the moonlight.
Fiction book (1993) -
I glimpsed its head, dazzling blue with fish scales in the pure sun.
Fiction book (1991) -
There are those with hair, those with scales, and those with skin.
Fiction book (1992) -
It had all these green scales on it.
-
Less attractive were the hands crusted with fish scales and the frequently bad teeth.
Fiction book (1990) -
It's a covering of bronze scale, with each scale sewn onto a leather or cloth backing.
-
A flare of red flame in the dusk air, a gleam of red gold scales of vast wings.
-
Spiny ridges covered her skull, and red scales ran along her crocodile's snout.
Fiction book (1992) -
The fish had shiny, silver scales that glimmered in the sunlight.
-
The ancient armor was made of overlapping metal scales, providing both flexibility and protection.
Synonyms
A small flat piece on a fish's body that protects its skin
Idioms
Compounds
- Archaic
A scale that measures how strong an earthquake is from the waves recorded by machines
A schedule that shows how much people are paid for different jobs or experience levels
- Specialized
A set of seven notes with whole steps except half steps between the third and fourth and seventh and eighth
- Specialized
A set of notes ordered from low to high that form a basic pattern for melodies
- Specialized
A balance with a long bar that turns and uses a sliding weight to measure how heavy something is
- Specialized
A pattern of seven notes that makes the familiar major and minor sounds
- Specialized
A musical scale that sounds sad because some notes are lower than in a major scale
- Specialized
A system for measuring how hot something is using units like Celsius and Fahrenheit
- Specialized
A small brown insect that lives on plants, drinks their juice and weakens them
A temperature scale where 0 degrees is water's freezing and 100 degrees its boiling
- Archaic
A way to measure temperature where water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees
- Specialized
A scale that measures how high sea waves are, from 0 calm to 9 very large
- Specialized
A scale of numbers that shows wave height at sea from 0 calm to 9 very high
- Specialized
A temperature scale that starts at absolute zero, with zero as the lowest possible temperature
- Specialized
A small insect with a hard wax covering that sticks to leaves and stems
- Specialized
A way of showing time in a simulation so events take longer than in real life
A scale for measuring temperature where water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees
- Specialized
A way of running a simulation where time moves faster than real life
- Specialized
A common eight-note pattern in Western music with small steps between third and fourth and seventh and eighth
- Specialized
A scale that measures how strong an earthquake feels and how much damage it causes
- Specialized
A set of notes used in Western music that makes a piece sound sad
- Specialized
A scale that compares how easily minerals scratch each other, from soft talc to hard diamond
- Specialized
A musical scale with fewer than seven notes that leaves out some notes from the usual scale
- Specialized
A scale that shows how high sea waves and long smooth waves are
- Specialized
A temperature scale that starts at absolute zero and uses the same size degree as Celsius
- Specialized
A musical scale of eight notes that uses whole and half steps one after the other
- Specialized
A temperature scale that starts at absolute zero and uses degrees the same size as Fahrenheit
- Archaic
A temperature scale where water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 80 degrees
- Specialized
A number from 0 to 14 that shows how acidic or basic a liquid is, with 7 neutral
- Specialized
Partly refined paraffin wax made when oil is processed and used in industry
- Specialized
A system that gives numbers or levels to show how much of something there is
- Specialized
A way used in models to stretch time so events look slower than real life
- Specialized
A small insect with a soft, waxy covering that lives on plant stems and leaves
- Specialized
A small tool that measures weight or force by how much a metal coil stretches
- Specialized
A small extra ruler that slides along a larger ruler to measure very small lengths
- Specialized
A number scale from zero to twelve used worldwide to show how strong the wind is
How Protective
Surface Forms
Etymology
Scale (thin plate, skin or fish) comes from an old word for a 'shell' or small hard plate on the surface, like the little pieces that cover a fish or dry skin.