MEANING
Maintaining a consistent ratio between quantities or corresponding appropriately in scale to something else.
Use it for
scaled relationships; fair allocation; responses matched to severityClarify whether a fixed ratio or a judgment about appropriate scale is intended.
Words that belong together
- directly proportional to
- proportional response
- proportional representation
On the page
Under the formula, funding is proportional to the number of enrolled students.
The penalty should be proportional to the seriousness of the violation.
Proportional representation translates vote shares into seats according to the electoral rules.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- proportional
Usage notes
Primary category: academic. In mathematics, proportional quantities change in a fixed ratio. In policy, proportional may mean appropriately scaled rather than mathematically exact. Normally non-gradable in this sense; comparison requires a specific contextual scale. Derived family (not inflections): proportion, proportionally.
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