Equal

How to spell equal

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce equal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does equal mean?

1. adjectiveThe same in quantity, value, size, or status as something else.
2. verbTo be the same in number, amount, or value as something.
3. nounA person or thing that is the same as another in status or quality.

Equal in a sentence

• adjective

  Both candidates have equal experience for the role.

• verb

  Two plus two will always equal four.

• noun

  She treats every colleague as an equal in meetings.

• adjective

  The company pays men and women equal wages.

• verb

  No other runner could equal her record time.

• noun

  As a debater he had no equal on the team.

Where does equal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin aequalis, meaning 'even', 'level', or 'matched', which was built on the adjective aequus, literally 'level' or 'flat', the same sense you get when ground is even underfoot. From that physical idea of levelness the meaning broadened to fairness and sameness in quantity or status, since to treat people as level is to treat them justly. English adopted it in the late 1300s, partly through Old French and partly straight from the Latin, and the spelling kept the Latin qu cluster intact. The same aequus root still hides inside relatives such as 'equity', 'adequate', and 'equator', the imaginary line that divides the globe into even halves. The spelling trap is mild but real: the qu is always followed by a vowel here, and the ending is the plain -al rather than the -el many writers expect.

How the word is built

• equ- (from Latin aequus: even, level)
• -al (adjective suffix)