Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Absence of proportion, symmetry, or proper relation: the disproportion between the gravity of geopolitical events and the time available to deal with them.
- n. An instance of a disproportionate relation.
- v. To make disproportionate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Want of proportion of one thing to another, or between the parts of the same thing; lack of symmetry; absence of conformity or due relation in size, number, quantity, etc.: as, the disproportion of a man's arms to his body, or of means to an end; the disproportion between supply and demand.
- n. Disproportion, some say, is the cause of the keenest misery in the world: for instance, the disproportion between the powers, capacities, and aspirations of man and his circumstances—especially as regards his physical wants.
- To make unsuitable in dimensions or quantity; mismatch; join unfitly.
Wiktionary
- n. something that is out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance
- v. transitive To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Want of proportion in form or quantity; lack of symmetry
- n. Want of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness; disparity.
- v. To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness to an end; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch; to join unfitly.
WordNet 3.0
- n. lack of proportion; imbalance among the parts of something
Etymologies
- dis- + proportion (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The disproportion is all the more surprising because females watch more TV than males.”
“The disproportion is far more acute in The West Indies than it has been elsewhere.”
“I don’t get claims that motherhood is ‘fetishized’ (I certainly did not get Cooke’s, and suspected that she does not understand the proper uses of the term ‘fetish’) – at the crudest level, ‘fetishize’ is used to refer to something being valued in disproportion to its worth, and I actually don’t think that that’s practically possible in the case of motherhood.”
“Doesn’t really matter how far you go back, the Israeli’s failed to build on the Hamas truce and each escalation has been in disproportion to the cause.”
Think Progress » Neocons Resurrect Plans For Regional War In The Middle East
“He walked or sat with his eyes continually fixed upon these feet -- reproachfully, it seemed -- as if their disproportion were a source of perennial woe; he carried his arms looped behind him, and had acquired a peculiar stoop -- to facilitate his vigilant guardianship of his feet, apparently.”
“Him Rhadamanthus beholds, full of all deformity and disproportion, which is caused by licence and luxury and insolence and incontinence, and despatches him ignominiously to his prison, and there he undergoes the punishment which he deserves.”
“Unless Israel uses what you call "disproportion", there won't be any Israel.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“A numerous nobility causeth poverty, and inconvenience in a state; for it is a surcharge of expense; and besides, it being of necessity, that many of the nobility fall, in time, to be weak in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion, between honor and means.”
“Roman Catholic and Protestant countries -- a disproportion which is so significant that comment upon it is unnecessary.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy
“It is precisely here that the danger of "disproportion" was found.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘disproportion’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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