Meanings
- A numerical classification schema for human skin color.
The Fitzpatrick scale was based not on color alone, but on how skin responds to UV radiation from sunlight. This factor meant that skin type, while linked to skin color, had more elements at play, namely different kinds of melanin cells.
2023, Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, Random House, →ISBN, page 1211 more example
Following a 1972 Australian study on skin burning, Harvard medical pioneer Thomas B. Fitzpatrick created the Fitzpatrick scale. […] Since the Fitzpatrick scale is a scientific resource, the Unicode Consortium adopted it in its diversity representation. It was a way for them to avoid probable controversial consequences and achieve ‘technological neutrality’.
2024, Amin Heidari, “Visual Language and Mind Engineering: The Case of Multicultural Emojis”, in Chris Shei, James Schnell, editors, The Routledge Handbook of Language and Mind Engineering, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN
Origin
Developed in 1975 by Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, a Harvard dermatologist.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Fitzpatrick scale. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fitzpatrick%20scale
“Fitzpatrick scale.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fitzpatrick%20scale. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Fitzpatrick scale,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fitzpatrick%20scale.
Source: Fitzpatrick scale on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.