ENGLISH
REFERENCE

proportionate

adj.
C1 Advanced US //pɹəˈpɔɹʃənət// pro·por·tion·ate

adj. having the right size, amount, or importance when compared to something else. If a punishment is proportionate, it fits the crime perfectly.

adj. corresponding in size, degree, or intensity to something else; maintaining a consistent ratio. Often used in legal or mathematical contexts to describe a balanced relationship between two variables.


SIMPLE

The punishment should be proportionate to the crime.

CONTEXTUAL

The company promised that salary increases would be proportionate to each employee's performance over the last year.

COMPLEX

In international law, military action is only considered legitimate if the force used is proportionate to the threat encountered, avoiding unnecessary harm to civilian populations.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

Borrowed from Latin prōportiōnātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, proportion + -ate.

Usage

Typically followed by the preposition 'to'. Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'remain'.

Pitfall

The tax is proportionate with your income.The tax is proportionate to your income.While 'proportionate with' is occasionally seen, 'proportionate to' is the standard idiomatic collocation in formal English.

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