timescale

noun

time·​scale ˈtīm-ˌskāl 

: an arrangement of events used as a measure of the relative or absolute duration or antiquity of a period of history or geologic or cosmic time

Examples of timescale in a Sentence

When considered on the 4.6 billion year timescale of the Earth, our lives can seem insignificant.

What is the timescale for completion of the work?

Recent Examples on the Web

But over shorter timescales, days to months, Earth's spin can actually speed up and that's what happened on July 9, and will also happen on July 22 and Aug. 5. —Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 10 July 2025

Earth's natural satellite exerts a powerful gravitational pull that generally slows our rotation over long timescales. —Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025

In the past, foresters worked only on long timescales. —Robert Sullivan, Curbed, 9 June 2025

With longer timescales comes more complexity: more collisions take place, and the whole history of a particle’s interactions might bear on its current behavior. —Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 14 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for timescale

• abigail
• cottontail
• countervail
• fingernail
• martingale
• mesoscale
• microscale
• monorail
• nanoscale
• ponytail
• swallowtail
• wensleydale

Kids Definition

timescale

noun

time·​scale ˈtīm-ˌskāl 

: an arrangement of events used as a measure of the duration or age of a period of history or geologic or cosmic time