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proportion
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

proportion as in:  the proportion of females

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  • •
    The proportion of women to men at my college is about 6 to 4.
    proportion = ratio (the quantity of one thing in relation to another)
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    The recommended proportion of bleach to water is different for sanitizing a kitchen counter than it is for disinfecting a toilet.
    proportion = ratio (the quantity of something in relation to something else)
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    We anticipated that a higher proportion of you would make it this far.  (source)
    proportion = share or percentage
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  • •
    My loyalty to my father had increased in proportion to the miles between us.  (source)
    proportion = relative amount
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    The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to commercialize genetic engineering.  (source)
    proportions = dimensions (or quantity)
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    Maycomb's proportion of professional people ran high: one went there to have his teeth pulled, his wagon fixed, his heart listened to, his money deposited, his soul saved, his mules vetted.  (source)
    proportion = share or percentage
  • •
    There was also something disturbing about the proportions of the rooms — the ceilings were too low for the width, the tunnels too narrow.  (source)
    proportions = dimensions
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    The economy wasn't producing new jobs for high school dropouts, an increasing proportion of whom -- roughly half -- were unemployed.  (source)
    proportion = percentage
  • •
    Black powder is composed of three basic ingredients in roughly the following proportions: 15 percent charcoal, 10 percent sulfur, and 75 percent saltpeter.  (source)
    proportions = relative amounts (of things that go together)
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    I always added a little sea water to Richard Parker's fresh water, in a greater proportion in the days following a rainfall, in a lesser during periods of drought.  (source)
    proportion = relative amount
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    I stammered nervously as I introduced him to Mother, who was blending bergamot and ylang-ylang, clicking her fingers to test the proportions.  (source)
    proportions = relative amounts (of things that go together)
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    Disorientated, Redd's imaginings fizzled and faded, less and less of a threat to Alyss, whose abilities seemed to be increasing in direct proportion to her confidence.  (source)
    proportion = relative amount
  • •
    These two ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, and formed into pills.  (source)
    proportions = relative amounts
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proportion as in:  a problem of large proportion

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  • •
    It was a scandal of enormous proportions.
    proportions = size or dimension
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    It is a building of vast proportions.
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    My grandmother gave me furniture of large proportions, but my apartment is small.
    proportions = dimensions
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  • •
    His ears are large beyond the proportions of his other features, as are his gnarled, meaty hands.  (source)
    proportions = sizes or dimensions
  • •
    He stood eight centimetres short of the standard Alpha height and was slender in proportion.  (source)
    proportion = size or dimensions
  • •
    Also, in the space of just over half a year, the Hubermanns had lost a son and gained a replacement of epically dangerous proportions.  (source)
    proportions = size or dimension
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    The gentleman who saw me was particularly suave in manner, but uncommunicative in equal proportion.  (source)
    proportion = amount
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    On Fifth Avenue that summer, demolition was soon to begin on the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, clearing the way for a skyscraper of unprecedented proportions, the Empire State Building.  (source)
    proportions = size or dimension
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    The people possessed by hereditary right the quality of reverence, which, in their descendants, if it survive at all, exists in smaller proportion, and with a vastly diminished force in the selection and estimate of public men.  (source)
    proportion = amount
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    Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle, in their due proportions, and cut them up.  (source)
    proportions = amounts
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    From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion.  (source)
    proportion = size
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    It was a placid explosion of orange and red, a great chromatic symphony, a colour canvas of supernatural proportions, truly a splendid Pacific sunset, quite wasted on me.  (source)
    proportions = size or dimension
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    The original and more potent causes, however, lay in the rare perfection of his animal nature, the moderate proportion of intellect, and the very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients; these latter qualities, indeed, being in barely enough measure to keep the old gentleman from walking on all-fours.  (source)
    proportion = amount
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proportion as in:  respond in proportion

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  • •
    The punishment should be in proportion to the crime.
    proportion = an amount that is appropriate relative (to something)
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    Tall and solidly proportioned, he wears wire-rimmed glasses that give him a professorial demeanor.  (source)
    proportioned = dimensioned (in relative body sizes)
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    Success was slow to come, and when it did, it was much appreciated, but the effort seemed out of proportion to the reward.  (source)
    out of proportion = not appropriate in amount
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    Huge it was, and nobly proportioned.  (source)
    proportioned = dimensioned (relative sizes)
  • •
    I think they've completely blown this whole thing out of proportion.†  (source)
    out of proportion = not appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    Indeed, he had had little opportunity to be anything else, and he now seemed pleased out of all proportion at this slight notice from his master.  (source)
    proportion = appropriate amount
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    They alledg'd that the act was intended to load the proprietary estate in order to spare those of the people, and that if it were suffer'd to continue in force, and the proprietaries who were in odium with the people, left to their mercy in proportioning the taxes, they would inevitably be ruined.†  (source)
    proportioning = making appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    Peter's incongruous, out-of-proportion sneeze had touched off one of his peoples' most highly developed traits: a sense of the ridiculous; a sense so keenly felt as to be almost beyond control.†  (source)
    out-of-proportion = not appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    I looked like a normally proportioned person with a balloon for a head.†  (source)
    proportioned = made appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    My father had felt so uncomfortable and scared because of the secrecy of all the arrangements, the men in uniform everywhere and the vulnerability of our family, that he had panicked and blown the incident out of proportion.†  (source)
    out of proportion = not appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    Your emotions never seem in proportion to their objects, Aziz.  (source)
    proportion = appropriate amount
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    There is a fine German proportioning to the room.†  (source)
    proportioning = making appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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    It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned.†  (source)
    proportioned = made appropriate in size, amount, or degree
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