equal
Part of speech: adj
verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: entertainment
lifestyle
mathematics
music
sciences
Etymology: From Middle English equal, from Latin aequālis. Doublet of aequalis and egal.
Inflected forms:
form: more equal
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most equal
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: æqual
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: æquall
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: equals
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: equaling
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
present
form: equalling
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
present
form: equaled
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
past
form: equaled
pos: verb
tags: US
past
form: equalled
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
past
form: equalled
pos: verb
tags: UK
past
form: æqual
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: æquall
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: equals
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: æqual
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: æquall
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: The same in one or more respects.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: Near-synonyms: equivalent; see also Thesaurus:equal
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."
gloss: The same in one or more respects.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: We hold that all men are created equal and are thus equal under the law.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the others.
[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.
[…] women and men should be equal regarding civil rights / the right to occupational work.
gloss: The same in one or more respects.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: Equal conditions should produce equal results.
All else being equal, we can expect this factor to have no discernible effect by itself.
They who are not disposed to receive them may let them alone or reject them; it is equal to me.
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.
gloss: The same in one or more respects.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: All right angles are equal.
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.
gloss: Fair, impartial.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
usually
examples: 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.
Are not my ways equal?
Thee, O Jove, no equall judge I deem.
gloss: Adequate; sufficiently capable or qualified.
pos: adj
tags: comparable
not-comparable
usually
examples: This test is pretty tough, but I think I'm equal to it.
be equal to the task
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.
her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged.
The Scots trusted not their own numbers as equal to fight with the English.
much less is it in my power to make my commendations equal to your merits.
gloss: Not variable; equable; uniform; even.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
usually
examples: an equal movement
an equal temper
gloss: Intended for voices of one kind only, either all male or all female; not mixed.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
gloss: To be equal to, to have the same value as; to correspond to.
pos: verb
tags: copulative
examples: Two plus two equals four.
gloss: To make equivalent to; to cause to match.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: David equaled the water levels of the bottles, so they now both contain exactly 1 liter.
There was an even more remarkable attendance figure that underscores the devotion exhibited by our fans, because it was in 1991 that they set a single season in-stadium attendance record that has never been equaled.
gloss: To match in degree or some other quality, to match up to.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: And what delights can equal those
⁠That stir the spirit’s inner deeps,
⁠When one that loves but knows not, reaps
A truth from one that loves and knows?
gloss: To have as consequence, to amount to, to mean.
pos: verb
tags: copulative
informal
examples: Losing this deal equals losing your job.
Might does not equal right.
Eclectic and sophisticated are hence coded as negative traits–so cool equaling not so cool–putting Swift in seemed lockstep with the anti-intellectual sentiment that's led to the astonishing 21st-Century Bubbafication of the Republican Party.
gloss: A person or thing of equal status to others.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: We're all equals here.
This beer has no equal.
Those who were once his equals envy and defame him.
The two who have no equals become friends without equal.
They had hoped their son, a stockbroker, would marry a financial equal, but Suzette, a teacher, did not come from money.
gloss: State of being equal; equality.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: Thou that presum'st to weigh the world anew,
And all things to an equall to restore.
Synonyms: coordinate
equal
even
identical
level
on a par
Antonyms: unequal
Related words: balanced
equality
Translations: