Meaning & use
size
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
How big or small something is, in measurements or amount.
Grammar: Usually with the or a: the size of the room.
Patterns
- the size of something
- a size
The size of the garden surprised us.
They sell the tomatoes by size.
What size is the screen?
nouncountable
One of a set of standard measurements in which goods such as clothes and shoes are sold.
Grammar: Used with a number or label: size 8, small size.
Patterns
- in size 8
Do you have these shoes in a size nine?
The jacket was a size too small.
She wears a medium size shirt.
nounsingular
The scale or seriousness of something abstract, such as a problem, debt or opportunity.
Grammar: Usually the size of something.
Patterns
- the size of something
The size of the debt shocked them.
Nobody realized the size of the problem.
The size of the audience grew every night.
verbtransitive
To arrange or change something by size, or to make something a certain size.
Grammar: Often size something up or size something down.
Patterns
- size something up
- size something down
The workers sized the images to fit the page.
He quickly sized up the room before sitting.
The shop sizes its clothes differently from other brands.
Word forms
| plural | sizes |
|---|---|
| third person singular | sizes |
| past tense | sized |
| past participle | sized |
| -ing form | sizing |
Common combinations
- in size
- The two houses are similar in size.
- size up
- The coach tried to size up the other team.
- a decent size
- We found a decent size apartment near the park.
- shoe size
- What is your shoe size?
- the size of
- The hailstones were the size of golf balls.
- cut down to size
- The failure cut his pride down to size.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dimensions
- Dimensions means the actual measurements like length and width, while size is more general.
- scale
- Scale suggests how large something is in comparison with something else, often for plans or events.
- magnitude
- Magnitude is a formal word for great size or importance, often for earthquakes or problems.
- proportions
- Proportions describes how the parts relate, while size just means how big the whole is.
Word family
- sizable adjective
- fairly large
- sized adjective
- having a stated size, as in medium-sized
- sizing noun
- the system of sizes for goods
- resize verb
- to change the size of something
- oversize adjective
- larger than usual
Commonly confused: size or sighs?
size vs sighs
Sighs sounds the same in some speech as sizes, but it means breathing out in sadness or relief.
Practice
Which sentence uses size as a verb?
Choose one answer.
Sized up is the verb form meaning assessed. The other sentences use size as a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “size”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.