scaled
/skeɪld/
scaled is the simple past and past participle of scale.
Adjective
scaled (not comparable)
- Covered with scales or scale-like structures.
- Synonyms:
- scaly
- Without scales, or with the scales removed.
- scaled herring
- Synonyms:
- esquamulose, scaleless, descaled
Meaning of scale
Verb
scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)
- To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion; especially to change a process in order to produce much larger amounts of the final product.
- We should scale that up by a factor of 10.
- To climb to the top of.
- Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
- To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
- That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.
- To handle heavily increasing loads without breaking down.
- We started using the term “scaling” in place of “growing” around the late 1990s to early 2000s, primarily due to the rise of venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. The term migrated from tech/infrastructure (“can this system scale?”) to startups (“can this business scale?”)May 12, 2025, Sarah Levinger, Post of "X" (formerly "Twitter")
- To increase revenues exponentially without proportional increases in costs.
- We started using the term “scaling” in place of “growing” around the late 1990s to early 2000s, primarily due to the rise of venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. [...] VCs needed a way to describe businesses that could grow exponentially without adding proportional headcount or expense. So...May 12, 2025, Sarah Levinger, Post of "X" (formerly "Twitter")
- To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
- Scaling his present bearing with his past.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Synonyms of scaled
Words formed from scaled
Phrases with scaled
Words that rhyme with scaled
Questions about scaled
- What does scaled mean?
- Scaled means covered with scales or scale-like structures.
- What is scaled the simple past and past participle of?
- Scaled is the simple past and past participle of scale.
- What part of speech is scaled?
- Scaled is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce scaled?
- Scaled is pronounced /skeɪld/.
Words near scaled in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scaled (page history and authors); 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scaled.wav.
Cite this entry: “scaled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scaled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
