(1) To resize a device, object or system, making it larger or smaller. With regard to increases, "scale vertically" or "scale up" refers to expanding a single machine's capability. To "scale horizontally" or "scale out" refers to adding more machines.

With regard to decreases, the term is often used with cutting-edge chip technologies. For example, "this memory scales with CMOS" means that this memory architecture can take advantage of the advances in CMOS chip fabrication by becoming smaller as well. See upconvert and scalable.

(2) To expand. The term is widely used to refer to systems that easily expand. See scalable and scaler.

(3) To move with. The phrase "the image scales with the window" means that as an on-screen window is dragged by the user to a larger or smaller frame size, the image inside continuously expands or contracts to fit the changing frame.

(4) To change the representation of a quantity in order to bring it into prescribed limits of another range. For example, values such as 1249, 876, 523, -101 and -234 might need to be scaled into a range from -5 to +5.

(5) To designate the position of the decimal point in a fixed or floating point number.