proportional

proportional, proportionate, commensurate, commensurable are often used without marked distinction because all mean being duly proportioned to something else. Proportional and proportionate both imply due proportions either to a related thing or things, or of things that are related (as by belonging to the same set, series, design, or construction, or by being the effect of a cause or the re-sponse to a stimulus).

Proportional is the more usual term when a constant and often mathematically precise ratio between corresponding aspects (as size, amount, number, or length) of related things is under consideration; thus, a proportional tax is one assessed as a constant percentage of the value (as of income or realty) being taxed; a proportional wage is a fixed percentage (as of gross sales or profits)

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the circumferences of all circles are proportional to the lengths of their radii

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a detailed plan for proportional . . . disarmament to be achieved by stages— Grenville Clark

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Proportional may be used, but proportionate is more often used, when the term is intended to imply the adjustment and sometimes the deliberate adjustment of one thing that bears a reciprocal relationship to another thing, so that both are in keeping with each other or not out of keeping with what is just, fair, due, or reasonable

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the punishment should be proportionate to the crime

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ponderous bodies forced into velocity move with violence proportionate to their weight— Johnson

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most state taxes produce a yield proportionate only to general economic growth— Armbrister

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they rushed into freedom and enjoyment... with an energy proportional to their previous restraint— Dickinson

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Commensurate and commensurable differ from the preceding words chiefly in carrying a stronger implication of equality between related things each of which has a value (as of measure, degree, or intensity) that is intimately related to that of the other

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the meagerness of the result was commensurate with the crudity of the methods— Buchan

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the two punishments must be perfectly commensurable— Bentham

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Sometimes both terms, but especially commensurable, differ from the other words in implying a common scale of values by which outwardly different things can be shown to be equal or proportionate in some significant way

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if two magnitudes can both be expressed in whole numbers in terms of a common unit, they are commensurable—W. G. Shute et al

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all civilizations] ... are commensurable, and . . . are but ramifications (if not historically, at least phenom- enologically) of the one idea of civilization— Schrecker

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the measure of a rancher's ability to take care of livestock while not on public land ... is referred to as his commensurability and the property so used is his commensurate property— Appraisal Terminology & Handbook

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Analogous words: corresponding, correlative, *reciprocal: relative, contingent, *dependent