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scale

5 ENTRIES FOUND:
  1. scale (noun)
  2. scale insect (noun)
  3. cottony-cushion scale (noun)
  4. Richter scale (noun)
  5. San Jose scale (noun)

scale

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Examples of the chromatic, major, and minor scales.—© Merriam-Webster Inc.

In music, primary pitches of a key or mode arranged within an octave. Scales are distinguished by the pattern of the intervals between adjacent notes. A scale can be seen as an abstraction from melody—that is, the pitches of a melody arranged in stepwise order.

This entry comes from Encyclopædia Britannica Concise.
For the full entry on scale, visit Britannica.com.

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