proportionally

American  

[pruh-pawr-shuh-nuhl-ee] / prəˈpɔr ʃə nəl i /

adverb

1. in a way or to an extent that maintains proportion relative to something else.

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Explanation

Use the adverb proportionally when you're comparing the size or amount of one thing to another. If there’s a park on every block where you live, your town has proportionally more public parks than the average town of its size. The US Congress is proportionally representative, so states with more people get more representatives. In other words, each state gets a number of representatives that corresponds to its population. The adverb proportionally comes from its related adjective, proportional and noun proportion. Both words have a Latin root, proportionem, which means "comparative relation or analogy" and stems from the phrase pro portione, or "according to the relation of parts to each other."

Example Sentences

That’s actually not a lot of speechifying if you look at it proportionally.

From Salon • May 28, 2026

Simpson said the challenge was how to hold Walter Mitty's to account proportionally on such an emotive subject for many.

From BBC • Jan. 21, 2026

“Many of the people coming are, proportionally, insiders — they’re interested in this form,” Carlson Bedirian says.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 8, 2025

If you do decide to split the rent proportionally to how much each of you make, does this apply to the utility bills?

From MarketWatch • Nov. 19, 2025

Although a reasonable first step in many cases, scaling quantities up or down proportionally is often invalid, as more mundane examples also demonstrate.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos