Multiscale

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to various levels of examination or investigation that coexist across different dimensions
2. Involving strategies or phenomena that operate across a spectrum of scales, merging information from both large and small perspectives
3. Concerned with multiple levels of analysis that function together across differing dimensions of scale

Etymology: "Multiscale" is a plain compound: the prefix "multi-", from Latin "multus" meaning "many", joined to "scale". The "scale" element comes from Latin "scala", a ladder or staircase, which English took in the sense of a graded series of marks or steps, and later extended to measuring instruments and to the range of sizes or magnitudes at which something is studied. The combination therefore describes something that operates across many scales at once, a ladder with many rungs rather than a single fixed measure. The word is formed from existing English parts and needs no special coinage story; its meaning follows directly from the two elements joined together.