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Glite Dictionary
📈 Expanding operations 📏 Adjusting size 🧗 Climbing up
scaling

scaling

1 3.9
Climbing up a wall or cliff
  • noun
  • /ˈskeɪlɪŋ/
translation icon : escalada
  • Scaling the ladder, she reached the top of the tree to get a better view of the valley.
  • scaling a ladder
  • scaling a tower
  • scaling a rock

And sometimes it can literally feel like I'm scaling a building without any safety harness on and one wrong foot.

Examples

  • He gained confidence after successfully scaling the large wall during the climbing competition.

  • If you decided to take a more scenic route, then climbing trees and scaling cliff faces can take minutes off your journey.

    Blog text (7)

  • Look at him scaling the mountains of Central Park.

  • You go walking and hiking and like scaling mountains and stuff.

    The Stag (2013)

  • Napoleon sends in his infantry with scaling ladders.

  • After several hours of simulated rappelling and wall scaling, I conducted another outer core dry run with ARIEL.

    Blog text (2)

  • It would take 40 minutes, after driving off the US 83 blacktop, to crawl across the primitive road, over creek beds and scaling hillsides, before we looped around to get to the cabin.

    Blog text (31)

  • Successful writing—and I mean not only worldly success but that private satisfaction that comes from doing something well—inspires the writer to do better, to attempt the scaling of greater heights, hitherto daunting obstacles.

    Academic text (2010)

  • The scaling of the steep cliff was challenging but thrilling.

Synonyms

climb
vsscaling
100 1.6

An act of moving up, for example on a hill or to a higher job

focuses on upward action often done using a ladder
ascent
vsscaling
26 4.2

To move upward, either by climbing or by reaching a higher position

is narrower stressing ladder or ladder like methods
ascension
vsscaling
18 7.5

A movement upwards to a higher position, for example climbing or getting a promotion at work

is the specific action usually done with a ladder or similar tool
escalade
vsscaling
  • Archaic
6 9.9

An act of climbing a wall with ladders during a battle

is broader upward action not limited to forced wall entry
climbing
vsscaling
4 2.0

Rising to a higher level, for example a mountain or the temperature

is about upward movement that usually involves ladder use
mount
vsscaling
1 4.8

A climb up a hill or mountain

is often performed with a ladder or ladder like tool

Antonyms

falling
111 1.1

An act of dropping from a higher place

descending
3.2

Moving down from a higher to a lower position

Compounds

scaling ladder
7.0

A portable tool that has steps to climb over high walls during an attack

How Difficult

climbing
4 2.0
scaling
1 3.9
to scramble
118 3.2
ascending
3.5

Surface Forms

scaling singular
scalings plural

Morphology

scaling = scale (transparent) = scale + ing

A straightforward gerund of the verb 'scale' in the sense 'to climb', so the meaning 'the act of climbing' is directly derived.

Etymology

Scaling comes from the Latin word scala meaning 'ladder', so to scale a wall is literally to climb it as if you had a ladder. That's why scaling can mean the act of climbing or going up.