Meanings
plural Gunter's scales
- A wooden rule, two feet long, on one side of which is marked scales of equal parts, of chords, sines, tangents, rhombs, etc., and on the other side scales of logarithms of these various parts, by means of which many problems in navigation and surveying may be solved mechanically, using only divides.
Synonyms: Gunter's rule
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA wooden rule, two feet long, on one side of which is marked scales of equal parts, of chords, sines, tangents, rhombs, etc., and on the other side scales of logarithms of these various parts, by means of which many problems in navigation and surveying may be solved mechanically, using only divides.
Origin
From Gunter + -'s + scale, from the surname of its inventor, the English clergyman, geometer, and mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581–1628).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Gunter's scale
Cite this entry
Gunter's scale. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gunter's%20scale
“Gunter's scale.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gunter's%20scale. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gunter's scale,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gunter's%20scale.
Source: Gunter's scale on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.