scala

Borrowed from Latin scāla (“ladder”). Doublet of scale.

scala (plural scalas or scalae)

1. Ladder; sequence.
2. (anatomy) Ladder-like structure in the cochlea of a mammal's ear.
3. A machine formerly used for reducing dislocations of the humerus.

• AACSL, Calas, Casal, calas, casal

Borrowed from Italian scala, from Latin scāla.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskaː.laː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sca‧la
• Rhymes: -aːlaː

scala f or n (plural scala's, no diminutive)

1. assortment, range

   Synonyms: gamma, assortiment, selectie

• IPA^(key): /ˈska.la/

scala (plural scalas)

1. staircase

• IPA^(key): /ˈska.la/
• Rhymes: -ala
• Hyphenation: scà‧la

Inherited from Latin scāla (“stair, staircase, ladder”).

scala f (plural scale)

1. ladder
2. stair
3. scale

• scala mobile (“escalator”)
• scalo

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

scala

1. inflection of scalare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

scala f (plural scale)

1. (card games, poker) straight

Poker hands in Italian · punti del poker (layout · text)
carta più alta	coppia	doppia coppia	tris	scala
colore	full	poker	scala reale	scala reale massima

• “scala”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026

• lasca

From *skand-slā, from Proto-Indo-European *skend-. The linguist Hrach Martirosyan connects the term with Old Armenian սանդուղք (sandułkʻ), for which he posits an Armeno-Italic isogloss *(s)kn̥d-sleh₂.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈskaː.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈskaː.la]

scāla f (genitive scālae); first declension

1. ladder
2. (plural only) stairs (flight of steps)

First-declension noun.

• “scala”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "scala", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “scala”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to apply scaling-ladders: scalas admovere (B. C. 3. 63)
    
  • to scale the walls by means of ladders: positis scalis muros ascendere
    
• scala in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “scala”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 543
• Martirosyan, Hrach (2010), Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 567

From Proto-Germanic *skalō (“shell”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, part, divide”).

scala f

1. shell
2. scale (dish of balance)
3. bowl

• Middle High German: schāle
  • Bavarian: Schoin
  • German: Schale
    • → Czech: šálek
    • → Serbo-Croatian: шо́ља, šolja, ша̏лица, šȁlica, шољица, šoljica
    • → Slovak: šálka
  • Yiddish: שאָל (shol)

• IPA^(key): /ˈst͡sa.la/
• Rhymes: -ala
• Syllabification: sca‧la

scala

1. third-person singular present of scalać

scala

1. archaic spelling of skala