Meaning

(not comparable) The same in one or more respects..

Definitions by Sense

1. (not comparable) The same in one or more respects.
2. (obsolete) Fair, impartial.
3. (comparable) Adequate; sufficiently capable or qualified.
4. (obsolete) Not variable; equable; uniform; even.
5. (music) Intended for voices of one kind only, either all male or all female; not mixed.
6. (mathematics, copulative) To be equal to, to have the same value as; to correspond to.
7. (transitive) To make equivalent to; to cause to match.
8. (transitive) To match in degree or some other quality, to match up to.

Example Sentences

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."

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.

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.

Word Forms

• more equal
• most equal
• æqual
• æquall
• equals
• equaling
• equalling
• equaled
• equalled

Synonyms for equal.

Antonyms for equal.

Related Words

When Should You Use Equal.?

Use equal. when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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