commensurate

English

Etymology

From Late Latin commēnsūrātus, from com- (“together, with”) +‎ mēnsūrātus, past participle of mēnsūrāre (“to measure, to estimate”), from Latin mēnsūra (“measure”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɛnʃəɹət/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɛnsəɹət/, /kəˈmɛnʃəɹət/

Adjective

commensurate (comparative more commensurate, superlative most commensurate)

1. Of a proportionate or similar measurable standard.

   commensurate punishments

   • 1962, Senator Mike Mansfield, Report to the President on Southeast Asia-Vietnam:

     If it is essential in our interests to maintain a quasi-permanent position of power on the Asian mainland as against the Chinese then we must be prepared to continue to pay the present cost in Vietnam indefinitely and to meet any escalation on the other side with at least a commensurate escalation of commitment of our own.

   • 2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 54:

     Kettering will become an important interchange for passengers making these journeys, and EMR is considering improvements to the station's facilities commensurate with this status.

2. (physics) Describing a crystal in which every atom or molecule is placed in the same relative position

Antonyms

• incommensurate
• discommensurate

Translations

Verb

commensurate (third-person singular simple present commensurates, present participle commensurating, simple past and past participle commensurated)

1. To reduce to a common measure.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: , 2nd edition, London: A Miller, for Edw Dod and Nath Ekins, , →OCLC:

     For that division is not naturally founded, but artificially set down, and by agreement, as the aptest terms to define or commensurate the longitude of places.

2. To proportionate; to adjust.
   • 1679, Timothy Puller, The moderation of the Church of England considered as useful for allaying the present distempers which the indisposition of the time hath contracted:

     The rare temper and proportion, which the Church of England useth in commensurating the Forms of Absolution to the degrees of preparation and necessity, is to be observed

References

Further reading

• “commensurate”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “commensurate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “commensurate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “commensurate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

commensurate

1. inflection of commensurare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

commensurate f pl

1. feminine plural of commensurato