equivalent

Similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.

Adjective

  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:
    • A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential...

    Synonyms: on a par equipollent

  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:
    • 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:

    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.

Origin

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).

Forms

more equivalent most equivalent æquivalent eq.

Derived

background radiation equivalent time banana equivalent dose biequivalent bioequivalent carbon dioxide equivalent car equivalent unit cyberequivalent equivalent airspeed equivalent dose equivalentist equivalently equivalent potential temperature equivalent shaft horsepower equivalent variation equivalent weight flight-time equivalent dose forty-foot equivalent unit gramme equivalent inequivalent jeu de taquin equivalent microequivalent milliequivalent Morita-equivalent nanoequivalent

Noun

  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...
    • 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...

    Coordinate Terms: counterpart

  2. An equivalent weight.

Forms

equivalents æquivalent eq.

Derived

carbon dioxide-equivalent certainty equivalent dose equivalent electrochemical equivalent full-time equivalent gasoline-equivalent gallon gasoline gallon equivalent gram equivalent moisture equivalent pitting resistance equivalent number TNT equivalent Turing equivalent

Verb

  1. To make equivalent to; to equal.

Forms

equivalents equivalenting equivalented æquivalent eq.