Equality

How to spell equality

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce equality

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does equality mean?

1. nounThe state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.

Equality in a sentence

• The new policy promises equality of pay for the same work.

• Campaigners marched for racial equality throughout the decade.

Where does equality come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin aequalitas, meaning 'evenness' or 'uniformity', which was built on the adjective aequalis, 'equal' or 'level'. That adjective in turn rests on aequus, a root that literally meant 'level, flat, even', and by extension 'fair' or 'just', the same sense we still hear in words like 'equate' and 'equator'. English took the term in through Old French as 'equalite' in the late 1300s, at first describing the plain idea of two things being the same in size or amount. Over the centuries the social meaning grew, so that by the era of revolutions and rights movements 'equality' had come to name the principle that people deserve the same treatment and standing. The spelling preserves the Latin 'equ-' cluster, which is the part writers must remember, since the sound gives no hint that a silent-feeling 'u' follows the 'q'.

How the word is built

• equ- (from Latin aequus: level, even, fair)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)