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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
proportional
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
proportional representation
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
directly
▪ Again, the increase is not directly proportional to the blocking factor.
▪ Hence a current flows; the current is directly proportional to the PO2 in the sample. 25.
▪ The usefulness of most Web sites is directly proportional to the benefits it offers to the people who visit it.
▪ The voltage induced in the pickup coil by this waveform is directly proportional to the rate of change of magnetic induction.
▪ This luminescence is measured and is directly proportional to the number of trapped electrons, and thus to the total radiation dose.
inversely
▪ For these reasons, rates of reproduction are inversely proportional to personal wealth.
▪ Just this: Worker commitment is inversely proportional to the degree of management centralization.
▪ In fact the proportion spent on rent was inversely proportional to income.
▪ The rate at which solid state sintering occurs is approximately inversely proportional to the particle size involved.
▪ The amount we give is inversely proportional to the conspicuousness of the causes of his behavior.
▪ In this respect the incidence of neurosis seems inversely proportional to social disorder.
▪ The way any system works is inversely proportional to its security.
▪ The centripetal force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the centre.
■ NOUN
representation
▪ At the end of 1917 there was much parliamentary manoeuvring over proportional representation.
▪ A proportional representation system is to apply to future elections.
▪ Elections to a lower house of parliament would be by proportional representation and an upper house would be appointed by provincial governments.
▪ If he is interested, I back the concept of the restoration of the Stormont parliament with members elected by proportional representation.
▪ But it will be no more than second-best representation, and certainly not proportional representation.
▪ Swapo was alone in its opposition to proportional representation and a bi-cameral system.
▪ The elections were conducted on the basis of proportional representation.
▪ A lower house would be elected according to a system of proportional representation combining regional and national lists.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ The intensity of color is expected to be proportional to the amount of analyte.
▪ The theorem states that the posterior probability is proportional to the prior probability multiplied by the likelihood.
▪ The usefulness of most Web sites is directly proportional to the benefits it offers to the people who visit it.
▪ The weights are modified by an amount proportional to the first derivative of the error with respect to the weight.
▪ Treatment plant cost is proportional to the amount of flexibility incorporated into its design basis.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Proportional

Compasses \Com"pass*es\, n., pl. An instrument for describing circles, measuring figures, etc., consisting of two, or (rarely) more, pointed branches, or legs, usually joined at the top by a rivet on which they move.

Note: The compasses for drawing circles have adjustable pen points, pencil points, etc.; those used for measuring without adjustable points are generally called dividers. See Dividers.

Bow compasses. See Bow-compass.

Caliber compasses, Caliper compasses. See Calipers.

Proportional, Triangular, etc., compasses. See under Proportional, etc.

Proportional

Proportional \Pro*por"tion*al\, n.

  1. (Math.) Any number or quantity in a proportion; as, a mean proportional.

  2. (Chem.) The combining weight or equivalent of an element.

Proportional

Proportional \Pro*por"tion*al\, a. [L. proportionalis: cf. F. proportionnel.]

  1. Having a due proportion, or comparative relation; being in suitable proportion or degree; as, the parts of an edifice are proportional.
    --Milton.

  2. Relating to, or securing, proportion.
    --Hutton.

  3. (Math.) Constituting a proportion; having the same, or a constant, ratio; as, proportional quantities; momentum is proportional to quantity of matter.

    Proportional logarithms, logistic logarithms. See under Logistic.

    Proportional scale, a scale on which are marked parts proportional to the logarithms of the natural numbers; a logarithmic scale.

    Proportional scales, compasses, dividers, etc. (Draughting), instruments used in making copies of drawings, or drawings of objects, on an enlarged or reduced scale.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
proportional

late 14c. (implied in proportionally), from Late Latin proportionalis "pertaining to proportions," from proportio (see proportion). Related: Proportionally.

Wiktionary
proportional

a. 1 At a constant ratio (to). Two magnitudes (numbers) are said to be proportional if the second varies in a direct relation arithmetic to the first. 2 In proportion (to), proportionate. More common in US than UK.

WordNet
proportional

n. one of the quantities in a mathematical proportion

proportional
  1. adj. properly related in size or degree or other measurable characteristics; usually followed by `to'; "punishment oughtt to be proportional to the crime"; "earnings relative to production" [syn: relative]

  2. increasing as the amount taxed increases [syn: graduated]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "proportional".

The assay involves using a radioactive drug which binds quantitatively to the acetylcholine receptor, the amount of radioactivity bound being proportional to the amount of receptor present.

In using a range of metals and polymers, the coefficient of inharmonicity is proportional to the modulus of elasticity divided by the square of the density.

Nor has the microscope discovered in the demented any exudation or addition to the stroma of the brain, or any change in size, shape, or proportional number of its cells.

Richard slowly turned each over, idly looking for anything that made sense to him as Zedd droned on about overlapping transpositional forks and triple duplexes bound to conjugated roots compromised by precession and sequential, proportional, binary inversions shrouding flawed bifurcations that the formulas revealed which could only be detected through Subtractive levorotatory.

This sine function is the same one that appeared earlier in the direct-current Josephson effect, where the supercurrent is proportional to the sine of the phase across the junction.

The oxidations at the cells are, therefore, under such control that the quantity of kinetic energy supplied to the body as a whole, and to the different organs, is proportional to the work that is done.

And by a convenient accident I find that the other day he moved to reject the Proportional Representation Amendment made by the House of Lords to the Representation of the People Bill, so that I am able to look up the debate in Hansard and study my opinions as he represented them and this question at one and the same time.

Looking at the question, now, in its generality, and referring to the first movements of the atoms towards mass-constitution, we find that heterogeneousness, brought about directly through condensation, is proportional with it forever.

This limit, called the Rayleigh criterion, is proportional to the wavelength of the light being focused divided by the lens aperture.

Whether a process yields proportional results, or not, will be seen from a series of standardisings.

If the results are proportional, these standards will vary more or less, according to the delicacy of the process, but there will be no apparent order in the variation.

All processes yield fairly proportional results if the quantities vary within narrow limits.

The problem was its height, which had to be proportional to the height of the walls of Takamatsu Castle.

The weights of the two buttons are proportional to the cubes of their diameters.

All strange-space astrogational computations are approximate, and the errors, though expressed in nano- or picodegrees, increase proportional to target distance.