ratio
Americannoun
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ratios
plural
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the relation between two similar magnitudes with respect to the number of times the first contains the second.
the ratio of 5 to 2, written 5:2 or 5/2.
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proportional relation; rate.
the ratio between acceptances and rejections.
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Finance. the relative value of gold and silver in a bimetallic currency system.
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Sometimes the ratio (on Twitter) the proportion of replies to a tweet compared to the combined number of retweets and likes, where a high ratio usually indicates a barrage of negative replies: LOL, then I added the reply, “Don't mind me, I'm just here for the ratio.”
How is the Twitter ratio any different from other kinds of outraged cybermobs?
LOL, then I added the reply, “Don't mind me, I'm just here for the ratio.”
verb (used with object)
noun
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a measure of the relative size of two classes expressible as a proportion
the ratio of boys to girls is 2 to 1
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maths a quotient of two numbers or quantities See also proportion
Usage
What else does ratio mean? On the social media platform Twitter, a ratio, or getting ratioed, is when replies to a tweet vastly outnumber likes or retweets. This means people are objecting to the tweet and considering its content bad.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ratio
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin ratiō “reckoning, account, calculation,” equivalent to rat-, past participle of rērī “to believe, think, imagine” + -iō, noun suffix from verb stems; see -tion
Explanation
A ratio is the relationship in quantity or degree between two things: “The ratio of men to women on the construction site was ten to one.” This means there were ten men present and one woman. Use the word ratio when you want to make a comparison between two things. A ratio basically expresses a proportion. Often used in mathematics, the word ratio has many real world uses as well. This word is useful for everything from making salad dressing (an oil-to-vinegar ratio of three to one) to selecting a school for a child (consider the student-to-teacher ratio when making your decision).
Vocabulary lists containing ratio
Pi Day Vocabulary
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Word Generation Science - Measurement
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Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But the standard ratio is near enough to its recent high that the computer analysis programs are not grading it as a buy signal.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
That ratio is striking when compared with living reptiles.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
Generally, it's running at a 7:1 ratio of new customers to lost customers, he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Native Americans more or less cohabited peaceably with the grizzlies, each usually giving the other wide berth, at a mid-19th century ratio of about 10,000 California grizzlies to 130,000 native Americans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
He inoculated two sealed, aerated cartons with a mixture of two fly strains—ABC and CBA—in a one-to-one ratio.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Wall Street analysts who cover Bank of America need a grasp of complex financial metrics, familiarity with regulatory ratios and, apparently, a high SAT vocabulary score.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Their neonate-adult body mass ratios can reach as high as 18.77%.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
By late 2022, 70% of FHA borrowers had debt-to-income ratios exceeding 43%, which is generally considered risky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Here are the largest 10 holdings of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF, with a summary of opinion among analysts polled by LSEG, as well as forward and trailing P/E ratios:
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
More precisely, these ratios had to be written in the form a/b, where a and b were nice, neat counting numbers like 1, 2, or 47.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Vance has been repeatedly ratioed on X ever since, a small but telling sign that the usual outrage machine is misfiring.
From Salon ● Jan. 14, 2026
They’ve become an entire syntax of communication; many a fine dunk below a ratioed tweet consists of a single GIF.
From The Verge ● Jul. 13, 2022
They also see in Ellis a persona who can laugh off getting ratioed amid a watch-your-step social media culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2021
Soon, 100 of her followers went over to the ASU president’s actual account and ratioed a tweet Crow sent out directing people to resources for coronavirus information.
From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2020
The news that McCabe found a new gig was broken by CNN’s in-house media reporter Oliver Darcy, and his tweet was quickly met with criticism and swiftly ratioed.
From Fox News ● Aug. 23, 2019
Candy preference ratioing gets fierce during Spooky Season.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2022
Never has so much ratioing left the internet all at once.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 22, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
