proportional

«proportional» in Mova's school dictionary: proportional if they grow or shrink together at the same… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (proportional)

meaning for a pupil

1) In maths, two amounts are proportional if they grow or shrink together at the same rate, so that one is always the same number times the other. tree →

2) Proportional means having the right size or amount compared with something else, fair in size. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths lessons, if 1 pencil costs 20p then 5 pencils cost 100p — cost is directly proportional to the number of pencils; the graph is a straight line through zero. Recipes and maps use proportion too. In ethics and law, a punishment should be proportional to the wrong done. In politics, «proportional representation» gives parties seats in proportion to their votes. Common phrases: «directly proportional», «inversely proportional», «proportional to», «proportional representation».

examples

• The cost is proportional to the number of tickets you buy. tree →
• If you double the recipe, keep the ingredients proportional. tree →
• The time taken is inversely proportional to the speed. tree →
• Her drawing of the face was nicely proportional. tree →
• The punishment should be proportional to what he did wrong. tree →
• On a graph, proportional amounts make a straight line through zero. tree →
• New Zealand uses a kind of proportional representation in elections. tree →

note

Use «proportional to». In maths: «directly proportional» — when one doubles, the other doubles; «inversely proportional» — when one doubles, the other halves (more workers, fewer days). Trap: amounts that both increase are not always proportional — the ratio must stay the same (for example, a taxi with a starting fee is not proportional).

In the corpora

• Proportional representation is a different system in which a party's share of seats matches its share of votes.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «proportional» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.