Proportional To: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “proportional to” when two quantities or degrees stand in a proportional relationship; “directly proportional to” and “inversely proportional to” are also documented patterns.
Key details
Confusion Familyusage-construction
Rule Familyadjective complement
Termsproportional to, directly proportional to, inversely proportional to
Further guidance
Construction
Use “proportional to” when two quantities or degrees stand in a proportional relationship; “directly proportional to” and “inversely proportional to” are also documented patterns.
Style Boundary
This guide records the documented “to” construction and its direct/inverse variants; it does not turn a mathematical relationship into a blanket rule for every use of “proportional.”
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Absent From: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Accountable For: Standard Pattern records the directly documented Cambridge construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Acquainted With: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Addicted To: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Adept At: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Adjacent To: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
