Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

scale down

 - definition
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
phrasal verb [transitive]
Word Forms
Close
present tense
I/you/we/theyscale down
he/she/itscales down
present participlescaling down
past tensescaled down
past participlescaled down

or scale back

  1. to make something smaller in size, amount etc than it used to be

    The search operation has been scaled down.

    a scaled-down peacekeeping force

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  scale downThesaurus entry for this meaning of scale down
See also main entry: scale

vocal fry

a speech habit in which a speaker lowers their voice at the end of a sentence

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day Word of the Day

glottal stop

a sound made by stopping air as it passes through your throat. In some varieties of spoken...

Open Dictionary

conflict mineral

a mineral which is mined in a place where there is armed conflict, and sold to help pay for weapons

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog