Definition: 1. Give pleasant proportions to. 2. Adjust in size relative to other things. 3. The quotient obtained when the magnitude of a part is divided by the magnitude of the whole. 4. Magnitude or extent. 5. Balance among the parts of something.
Use 'proportion' in a sentence:
1. The media may be blowing it up out of proportion.
2. The proportion of men to women in the college has changed dramatically over the years.
3. We must not lose our sense of proportion.
4. A person's wealth is often in inverse proportion to their happiness.
5. They receive a proportion of their income from the sale of goods and services.
6. A higher proportion of Americans go on to higher education than is the case in Britain.
7. Scott of the Antarctic was a national hero of mythic proportions.
8. The proportion of the population who are over retirement age has grown tremendously in the past few years.
9. Although a small proportion of the total population, this perhaps had a massive local impact when a large proportion of the young men were removed from an area.
10. The punishment was out of all proportion to the crime.
11. The tension grew in inverse proportion to the distance from their final destination.
12. The proportion of empty space in a rock is known as its porosity.
13. Were the government to use a multiplier of five instead of three, the proportion of Americans below the poverty line would rise to more than 24 percent.
14. The proportion of women in middle management has risen to 40%.
15. A large proportion of the dolphins in that area will eventually die.
16. Children tend to have relatively larger heads than adults in proportion to the rest of their body.
17. The proportion of small cars on America's roads is increasing.
18. We've got to keep this in proportion.
19. A large proportion of the nation's households are hooked up to the Internet.
20. In Japan the proportion is 35%.
21. The proportion of women in the profession had risen to 17.3%.
22. The whole affair was blown up out of all proportion.
23. You haven't drawn the figures in the foreground in proportion.
24. Vaccine supplies started to run dry as the flu outbreak reached epidemic proportions.
25. A proportion of the land is used for agriculture.
26. A high proportion of candidates get low or unclassified grades.
27. To my eye, the windows seem out of proportion.
28. Loam is a soil with roughly equal proportions of clay, sand and silt.
29. The proportion of Americans living on welfare rose.
30. The head is out of proportion with the body.
31. The basic ingredients are limestone and clay in the proportion 2:1.
32. The room is very long in proportion to its width.
33. To my eye , the windows seem out of proportion.
34. The expulsion of thousands of people represents a humanitarian catastrophe of enormous proportions.
35. A large proportion of old people live alone.
36. The railways will carry a far higher proportion of freight traffic.
37. The proportion of single parent families varies between different income groups.
38. Water covers a large proportion of the earth's surface.
39. A high proportion of five-year-olds have teeth in poor condition.
40. They earn salaries out of all proportion to their ability.
41. The media have blown the incident up out of all proportion.
42. The proportion of regular smokers increases with age.
43. We must keep a sense of proportion about all this.
44. Older people comprise a large proportion of those living in poverty.
