Word.ws English Dictionary

equivalent

/ɪˈkwɪvələnt/

equivalent adjective: similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.

Adjective

equivalent (comparative more equivalent, superlative most equivalent)

  1. Similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.
    • To burn calories, a thirty-minute jog is equivalent to a couple of hamburgers.
    • For now to serve and to minister, servile and ministerial, are terms equivalent.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
  2. Of two sets, having a one-to-one correspondence.
    • All enumerable sets are equivalent to each other, but not to any finite set.1950, E. Kamke, Theory of Sets, page 16
    • Equivalent sets should, by rights, have the same "number" of elements. For this reason we sometimes say that equivalent sets have the same cardinality.2000, N. L. Carothers, Real Analysis, page 18
    Synonyms:
    equinumerous
  3. Relating to the corresponding elements of an equivalence relation.
  4. Of two categories, (informally) such that one is essentially a relabeling of the other; (formally) related by a pair of functors such the composition of the one with the other is naturally isomorphic to the identity functor.
  5. Having the equal ability to combine.
  6. Of a map, equal-area.
  7. Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; applied to magnitudes.
    • A square may be equivalent to a triangle.

Noun

equivalent (plural equivalents)

  1. Anything that is virtually equal to something else, or has the same value, force, etc.
    • He owned that, if the Test Act were repealed, the Protestants were entitled to an equivalent, and went so far as to suggest several equivalents.1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VII, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC
    • Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war" — except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy.1977 April 18, Jimmy Carter, President's Address to the Nation on Proposed National Energy Policy
  2. An equivalent weight.

Verb

equivalent (third-person singular simple present equivalents, present participle equivalenting, simple past and past participle equivalented)

  1. (transitive) To make equivalent to; to equal.

equivalent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

equivalent in Hindi

similar or identical in value
समान samān, बराबर barābar

equivalent in Tamil

இணைமாற்று, ஒப்பான, ஒத்த, சமமான, சமவலுவான, சம்மதிப்புள்ள

equivalent in Marathi

equivalent, equal
समान samān

equivalent in Urdu

بدل, برابر, مساوی
More languagesFewer languages
equivalent in Bengali
সমতুল্য, সম, সমকক্ষ, একই
equivalent in Telugu
సమానము samānamu
equivalent in Malayalam
തത്തുല്യമായ, തുല്യബലമുള്ള, സമമൂല്യമായ
equivalent in Kannada
ಸಾಟಿಯಾದ, ಸರಿಯಾದ
equivalent in Gujarati
સમકક્ષ
equivalent in Odia
ସମତୁଲ୍ଯ଼, ସମତୁଲ୍ଯ, ସମତୁଲ୍ଯ଼ |
equivalent in Nepali
समतुल्य, समकक्ष
equivalent in Tagalog
katumbas, kapareho, kapantay, katimbang
equivalent in Arabic
مُعَادِل muʕādil
equivalent in Persian
برابر barâbar, هامال hâmâl, همارز ham-arz, همسنگ
equivalent in Thai
เทียบเท่า tîiap-tâu

Examples of equivalent in a sentence

  • Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:
  • Total activity levels in the lowest quartile were equivalent to walking for 49 minutes at roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) per hour daily.2024 November 15, Kristen Rogers, “Want to live an extra 5 to 10 years? Adopt this habit, study suggests”, in CNN, archived from the...
  • Finite sets A and B are equivalent sets only when n(A) = n(B) i.e., the number of elements in A and B are equal.c. 2005, P N Gupta Kulbhushan, Comprehensive MCQ's in Mathematics, page 3:
  • The equivalence theorem: If both M is equivalent to a subset N₁ of N and N is equivalent to a subset M₁ of M, then the sets M and N are equivalent to each other.2006, Joseph Breuer, Introduction to the Theory of Sets, page 41:

All 40 example sentences with equivalent

Synonyms of equivalent

Forms of equivalent

Adjective
comparativemore equivalent
superlativemost equivalent
alternative abbreviationeq.
alternative form (obsolete)æquivalent
Noun
pluralequivalents
Verb
third-person singular presentequivalents
present participleequivalenting
past participleequivalented
pastequivalented

Plural of equivalent: equivalents

Origin of equivalent

From Latin aequivalentem, accusative singular of aequivalēns, present active participle of aequivaleō (“to be equivalent, have equal power”). By surface analysis, equi- + -valent. Mostly displaced native Middle English efenmete (See evenmete).

Words formed from equivalent

Phrases with equivalent

Questions about equivalent

What does equivalent mean?
Equivalent means similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.
What is equivalent in Hindi?
Equivalent in Hindi is समान (samān), बराबर (barābar). See Equivalent meaning in Hindi.
How do you use equivalent in a sentence?
Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.
What part of speech is equivalent?
Equivalent can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce equivalent?
Equivalent is pronounced /ɪˈkwɪvələnt/.

Words near equivalent in the dictionary

  1. equivalenced
  2. equivalences
  3. equivalencies
  4. equivalencing
  5. equivalency
  6. equivalent
  7. equivalent airspeed
  8. equivalent airspeeds
  9. equivalent dose
  10. equivalent doses
  11. equivalent potential temperature

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: equivalent (page history and authors); equivalent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); समान (Marathi) (page history and authors); equivalent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equivalent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equivalent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equivalent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equivalent (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); equivalent (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); equivalent (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-equivalent.ogg.

Cite this entry: “equivalent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/equivalent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.