equal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈiːkwəl/
ipa: /ˈiːkəl/
rhymes: -iːkwəl
Forms: form: more equal
form: most equal
form: æquall
form: æqual
Etymology: From Middle English equal, from Latin aequālis. Doublet of aequalis and egal.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonyms: equivalent; see also Thesaurus:equal
text: Dr. [Eugenia] Cheng's latest book, Unequal: The Math of When Things Do and Don’t Add Up, is all about equations and will be released in the United States on Tuesday. But it is more than a regurgitation of the many formulas you may recall learning in high school. In the book, Dr. Cheng argues that an equation — in its barest sense, a declaration that two things are equal — can be a profound statement on the choices we make about what is or is not the same. For example, 2 × 3 may equal 3 × 2. But two packs of three cookies each is distinct from three packs of two cookies each. A cube drawn face-on versus from one edge looks different, though we understand the two shapes to be the same. "Almost everything can be considered equal and unequal at the same time," Dr. Cheng wrote. "And it's up to us what we do about it."
ref: 2025 August 30, Katrina Miller, “You Don't Need to Be Good at Math to Enjoy It. In her latest book, Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician, explores the choices we make to determine if two things — numbers, shapes, words and even people — are equal. 'A Conversation With' column”, in New York Times:
glosses: The same in one or more respects.
examples: text: We hold that all men are created equal and are thus equal under the law.
text: [Under] the combat exclusion [preventing women from serving in combat...] Women are not equal citizens; women are a certain kind of citizen, a separate class with distinctly lower status.
ref: 1983, Law & Inequality:
text: […] women and men should be equal regarding civil rights / the right to occupational work.
ref: 2009, Kari Melby, Christina Carlsson Wetterberg, Anna-Birte Ravn, Gender Equality and Welfare Politics in Scandinavia: The Limits of Political Ambition?, Policy Press, →ISBN, page 57:
glosses: The same in one or more respects.
The same in value (status, merit, etc): having or deserving the same rights or treatment.
examples: text: Equal conditions should produce equal results.
text: All else being equal, we can expect this factor to have no discernible effect by itself.
text: They who are not disposed to receive them may let them alone or reject them; it is equal to me.
ref: 1705, George Cheyne, The Philosophical Principles of Religion Natural and Revealed:
text: I now believe that evolution, or deevolution, never ends short of death, that no society has ever achieved an absolute pinnacle, that all humans are not created equal. In fact, I believe attempts to create some abstract equalization create a morass of injustices that rebound on the equalizers. Equal justice and equal opportunity are ideals we should seek, but we should recognize that humans administer the ideals and that humans do not have equal ability.
ref: 1980 July, Frank Herbert, “Dune Genesis”, in Omni, volume 2, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 74, column 2; republished as Ultimate Guide To Dune (Part 2) Book One (1:11:30), 2017:
glosses: The same in one or more respects.
The same in all respects that matter practically; interchangeable, fungible, or (even sometimes) identical for practical purposes.
examples: text: All right angles are equal.
text: The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The same in one or more respects.
Exactly identical, having the same value.
examples: text: it could not but much redound to the lustre of your milde and equall Government, when as private persons are hereby animated to thinke ye better pleas'd with publick advice, then other statists have been delighted heretofore with publicke flattery.
ref: 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:
text: Are not my ways equal?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 18:29:
text: Thee, O Jove, no equall judge I deem.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 35:
synonyms: word: objective
word: unbiased
word: candid
word: cold
word: clinical
word: detached
word: egal
word: equal
word: equitable
word: evenhanded
word: fairhanded
word: fair-minded
word: disinterested
word: dispassionate
word: impartial
word: imprejudicate
word: indifferent
word: indistinguishing
word: neuter
word: neutral
word: nonaligned
word: nonpartial
word: nonpartisan
word: nonpersonal
word: objective
word: unbiased
word: unbigoted
word: uninterested
word: unpartial
word: unpartisan
word: unprejudiced
word: unprepossessed
glosses: Fair, impartial.
examples: text: This test is pretty tough, but I think I'm equal to it.
text: Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is—which was the only way he could get there—thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter X, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
text: her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged.
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
text: The Scots trusted not their own numbers as equal to fight with the English.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641, Oxford: The Theater:
text: much less is it in my power to make my commendations equal to your merits.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: […]whose voice an equal messenger / Conveyed thy meaning mild.
ref: 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Threnody”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Adequate; sufficiently capable or qualified.
examples: text: an equal movement
text: an equal temper
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Tenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: even
word: fair
word: uniform
word: unvarying
word: constant
word: changeless
word: equal
word: nonchanging
word: static
word: stationary
word: unaltering
word: unchanging
word: unvarying
word: consistent
word: equable
word: equal
word: even
word: even-keeled
word: monotonous
word: regular
word: samely
word: stable
word: steady
word: uncheckered
word: uniform
word: unvaried
word: unvarying
glosses: Not variable; equable; uniform; even.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Intended for voices of one kind only, either all male or all female; not mixed.
Synonyms: word: coordinate
word: equal
word: even
word: identical
word: level
word: on a par
Hyponyms: word: equivalent
word: tantamount
Related terms: word: balanced