Word.ws English Dictionary

Fitzpatrick scale

Fitzpatrick scale proper noun: a numerical classification schema for human skin color.

Proper noun

the Fitzpatrick scale

  1. A numerical classification schema for human skin color.
    • The Fitzpatrick scale was based not on color alone, but on how skin responds to UV radiation from sunlight. This factor meant that skin type, while linked to skin color, had more elements at play, namely different kinds of melanin cells.2023, Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, Random House, →ISBN, page 121
    • Following a 1972 Australian study on skin burning, Harvard medical pioneer Thomas B. Fitzpatrick created the Fitzpatrick scale. […] Since the Fitzpatrick scale is a scientific resource, the Unicode Consortium adopted it in its diversity representation. It was a way for them to avoid probable...2024, Amin Heidari, “Visual Language and Mind Engineering: The Case of Multicultural Emojis”, in Chris Shei, James Schnell, editors, The Routledge Handbook of Language and Mind Engineering, Taylor &...

Origin of Fitzpatrick scale

Developed in 1975 by Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, a Harvard dermatologist.

Questions about Fitzpatrick scale

What does Fitzpatrick scale mean?
Fitzpatrick scale means a numerical classification schema for human skin color.
What part of speech is Fitzpatrick scale?
Fitzpatrick scale is a proper noun.

Words near Fitzpatrick scale in the dictionary

  1. Fitzmaurice
  2. Fitzmaurices
  3. Fitzner
  4. Fitzners
  5. Fitzpatrick
  6. Fitzpatrick scale
  7. Fitzrandolph
  8. Fitzrovia
  9. Fitzroy
  10. Fitzroy Falls
  11. Fitzroy North

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Fitzpatrick scale (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Fitzpatrick scale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fitzpatrick_scale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.