balance
pronunciation
How to pronounce balance in British English:
UK [ˈbæləns]
How to pronounce balance in American English:
US [ˈbæləns]
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- Noun:
- a state of equilibrium
- a scale for weighing; depends on pull of gravity
- equality between the totals of the credit and debit sides of an account
- harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole (as in a design)
- equality of distribution
- something left after other parts have been taken away
- the difference between the totals of the credit and debit sides of an account
- (mathematics) an attribute of a shape or relation; exact correspondence of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane
- an equivalent counterbalancing weight
- a wheel that regulates the rate of movement in a machine; especially a wheel oscillating against the hairspring of a timepiece to regulate its beat
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- Verb:
- bring into balance or equilibrium
- compute credits and debits of an account
- hold or carry in equilibrium
- be in equilibrium
Word Origin
- balance
- balance: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of balance is of a weighing apparatus with ‘two pans’ for holding things. In Latin this was a lībra bilanx, literally ‘scales with two pans’ – bilanx being compounded from bi- ‘two’ and lanx ‘plate, pan’. Bilanx passed, in its stem from bilanc-, via Vulgar Latin *bilancia into Old French balance, the source of the English word.
- balance (n.)
- early 13c., "apparatus for weighing," from Old French balance (12c.) "balance, scales for weighing," also in the figurative sense; from Medieval Latin bilancia, from Late Latin bilanx, from Latin (libra) bilanx "(scale) having two pans," possibly from Latin bis "twice" + lanx "dish, plate, scale of a balance." The accounting sense is from 1580s; the meaning "general harmony between parts" is from 1732; sense of "physical equipoise" is from 1660s. Balance of power in the geopolitical sense is from 1701. Many figurative uses (such as hang in the balance, late 14c.), are from Middle English image of the scales in the hands of personified Justice, Fortune, Fate, etc.
- balance (v.)
- 1570s, "be equal with," from balance (n.). Meaning "bring or keep in equilibrium" is from 1630s; that of "keep oneself in equilibrium" is from 1833. Of accounts, from 1580s. Related: Balanced; balancing. Balanced meal, diet, etc. is from 1908.
Antonym
Example
- 1. What was the budget balance ?
- 2. That balance is now changing .
- 3. What about your life balance ?
- 4. But global trade must balance .
- 5. Italy 's current-account balance swung to surplus and growth leapt .