student asking question

What does "disproportionately" mean? Can I replace this with "more likely"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Disproportionately" means to an extent that is out of proportion, uneven, or too large or too small compared with something else. In the context of the video, this means that mosquito-borne diseases affect warm climates more than other climates. In this case, you could replace "disproportionately with "more likely", however "disproportionately" does not quite have the same meaning as "more likely", because "disproportionately" could mean either "more" or "less". Instead, it is more similar to the word "unevenly". Ex: They have spent their time disproportionately on this project.

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