Scala

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A series of steps or a ladder used for ascending or descending; a musical scale denoting a sequence of notes; a framework or system of classification or organization in a specific field of study
2. A progression of steps or a staircase facilitating movement between levels; a range of musical pitches arranged in a specific order; a method for categorizing or structuring information according to particular criteria
3. An arrangement of ascending or descending levels akin to steps; a structured series of musical notes defined by specific intervals; an organized system used to sort information or concepts within a discipline

Etymology: Latin "scāla" meant "ladder," and it is the same word that gave English "scale" in the sense of a climbing ladder, a meaning that has largely faded from common use. The two words are doublets: they split apart as they came into English by different routes, one borrowed directly and the other arriving through another language, and so they ended up looking and feeling different despite sharing a source. English took "scala" straight from Latin, where the image was literal and physical: a set of rungs you climb one at a time. That picture of ascending by stages is what carries the word's sense of a graded series, whether of notes in music, of values on a measuring instrument, or of any ordered sequence of steps. The word stayed close to its original image of rungs in a row.