proportional

proportional — adjective

1. relating to two amounts or numbers that increase or decrease together in a match

1.形容詞B2
釋義

relating to two amounts or numbers that increase or decrease together in a matched way — when one doubles, the other doubles; when one is reduced by half, the other is also reduced by half.

例句

Rin spent €50 a day on food, making her total food bill proportional to her trip length.

proportional + to + noun phrase

In a fair system, the punishment should be proportional to the crime's seriousness.

同義詞
  • proportionate

    more formal and often used in legal or official contexts

  • commensurate

    formal; implies a fitting correspondence, often with status or effort

  • corresponding

    broader; general match without mathematical precision

反義詞

文法句型

proportional + to + noun phrase

directly proportional + to + noun phrase

inversely proportional + to + noun phrase

用法筆記

Proportional is almost always followed by 'to' when specifying what it relates to. The adverbs 'directly' (moving in the same direction) and 'inversely' (moving in opposite directions) are very common with this word.

常見錯誤

❌The bonus was proportional the sales.
✅The bonus was proportional to the sales.
💡proportional always requires 'to' after it when connecting two amounts.

proportional — noun