Scaled

Scaled is the past participle of scale and also an everyday adjective with several related meanings. In its most literal sense, scaled describes something that is covered with scales, such as a scaled fish or a scaled reptile. In a more general sense, scaled indicates that an object has been resized according to a scale factor, so its dimensions are multiplied by a fixed amount while proportions are preserved.

The word also appears in actions. To scale can mean to climb or ascend something, as in scale a wall or scale a mountain. Conversely, in contexts where scales are removed, the related term descaled is used, though the past participle scaled typically remains associated with the presence of scales rather than their removal.

In mathematics, computer science, and design, scaled refers to the process of resizing a shape, image, or dataset by a scale factor. Uniform or isotropic scaling uses the same factor in all directions, while non-uniform or anisotropic scaling applies different factors along different axes. Scaling is a fundamental operation in graphics, geometric modeling, and many data-processing workflows, often described by a scale factor or a scaling matrix.

In biology and medicine, scale refers to the protective outer covering on many vertebrates; scaled can describe organisms with such coverings. In dentistry, scaling is a cleaning procedure, and discussions of scaled findings or scaled measurements may occur in clinical notes.

Overall, scaled captures a range of concepts tied to size, proportion, and the presence or action of scales, across physical, mathematical, and practical domains.