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escala

Spanish, noun

escala is spelled E-S-C-A-L-A (6 letters) and appears 44 times per million words in written Spanish, the 1,983rd most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Escala is a Spanish feminine noun meaning “ladder (a frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a third-person singular present indicative of escalar. With an accent, escalá is a different word: “second-person singular voseo imperative of escalar”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Escalera de mano; utensilio que se compone de dos listones gruesos de madera, en que están encajonados…”.

What does escala mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    feminineladder (a frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent)

  2. 2

    femininescale (an ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement, means of assigning a magnitude)

  3. 3

    femininescale (a series of notes spanning an octave)

  4. 4

    feminineladder, hierarchy (of a company, of the military)

  5. 5

    femininescale (the ratio of depicted distance to actual distance)

  6. 6

    femininescale (size; scope)

    a gran escala

noun

  1. 1

    femininestopover, layover (a short interruption in a journey or the place visited during such an interruption)

    hacer escala en

verb

  1. 1

    third-person singular present indicative

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

verb

as escalá
  1. 1

    second-person singular voseo imperative of escalar

Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Spanish dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Escalera de mano; utensilio que se compone de dos listones gruesos de madera, en que están encajonados trasversalmente y a iguales distancias otros más cortos. Puede ser también de cuerda o de madera y cuerda. 2. Conjunto de elementos de una misma especie ordenados en una serie gradual por sus propiedades. 3. Puerto donde paran los barcos por algún tiempo, lo cual se expresa por la frase hacer escala. Esta palabra toma origen de la costumbre que los navíos tenían de hacer paradas en cierto número de puertos, lo que implicaba poner una escala, puente o plancha para descender. 4. Parada momentánea que hacen los barcos o aviones en algún puerto para desembarcar parcialmente, o proveerse lo necesario para continuar hacia su destino final.

The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.

Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of escala

  • escalas plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to escala

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is escala in Spanish?

escala appears 44 times per million words in written Spanish.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after escala