equity

Noun

equity (countable and uncountable, plural equities)

1. Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right".
   • Sufficeth what they in their graue wiſedoomes ſhall proſcribe, I in no ſorte will ſeeke to acquite, nor preſumptuouſly attempte to diſpute againſt the equity of their iudgementes, but humble and proſtrate appeale to their mercies.1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 2
   • “One of the staff said, ‘That’s fine, Delia. But what do wolves have to do with equity, justice and inclusion?’" Ms. Malone said.2025 November 7, David A. Fahrenthold, Claire Brown, quoting Delia Malone, “The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York...

   Antonyms:

   inequity, iniquity

2. The power of a court of law having extra-statutory discretion, to decide legal matters and to provide legal relief apart from, though not in violation of, the prevailing legal code; in some cases, a court "sitting in equity" may provide relief to a complainant should the code be found either inapplicable or insufficient to do so.
   • A Court of equity knows its own province.1800, Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon in Mayor, &c. of Southampton v. Graves (1800), 8 T. R. 592.
   • A Court of equity interposes only according to conscience.1851, Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards in Birch v. Joy (1851), 3 H. L. C. 598
3. A right which accrues to a party in a transaction because of the nature of the transaction itself, and which is exercisable upon a change of circumstances or conditions; in other words, an equitable claim.
   • ...the mortgagor retains ‘equitable title’ or the ‘equity of redemption’….The equity of redemption permits the mortgagor to regain legal title to the mortgaged property upon satisfying the conditions of the mortgage...1999, In Re Fitzgerald, 237 B.R. 252, 261 (Bkrtcy. D.Conn. 1999)
   • The wife's equity does not, according to the adjudged cases, attach, except upon that part of her personal property in action which the husband cannot acquire without the assistance of a court of equity1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law
4. (England) The body of law which was developed in the English Court of Chancery, which Court had extra-statutory discretion, and is now administered alongside the common law of Britain.
5. Value of property minus liens or other encumbrances.
   • I have a lot of equity in my house.
6. Ownership, especially in terms of net monetary value of some business.
   • Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their...2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
7. Ownership interest in a company as determined by subtracting liabilities from assets.
8. A player's expected share of the pot.
9. (nonstandard) Equality
   • What steps the Government are taking to help ensure equity of opportunity for people from low-income families.2020 July 22, Ben Bradley, “Low-income Families: Equity of Opportunity”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), column 2139