time scale

1. 1.

   an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration

   “on the geological time scale mankind has existed but for a brief moment”

   Broaderduration

   Narrowerextended time scalefast time scale

Questions about time scale

What does time scale mean?

time scale means "an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration".

Is time scale a common word?

time scale is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.