Adjective: equivalent
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more equivalent |
| Superlative | most equivalent |
Sample Sentences
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To burn calories, a thirty-minute jog is equivalent to a couple of hamburgers.
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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:]
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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 to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever. [2012 March 26, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:]
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Total activity levels in the lowest quartile were equivalent to walking for 49 minutes at roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) per hour daily. Total activity levels in the second-, third- and fourth-highest quartiles were equivalent to 78, 105 and 160 minutes, respectively. [2024 November 15, Kristen Rogers, “Want to live an extra 5 to 10 years? Adopt this habit, study suggests”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2025:]
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All enumerable sets are equivalent to each other, but not to any finite set. [1950, E. Kamke, Theory of Sets, page 16:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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:]
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A square may be equivalent to a triangle.
Adjectives inflected like equivalent
priest-ridden,
unreposed,
evadible,
dissentious,
dissentient,
unforesighted,
egocentrical,
unephemeral,
unennobling,
mensuralist,
flocculent,
unseductive,
whoopsy,
whooshy,
surrogate,
Nicodian,
unrepaired,
prismatoidal,
renorenal,
unseducible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. From Latin aequivalentem, accusative singular of aequivalēns, present active participle of aequivaleō (“to be equivalent, have equal power”). By surface analysis, equi- + -valent.
2. Mostly displaced native Middle English efenmete (See evenmete).
Verbs referencing "equivalent"
Finnish Adjectives
ekvivalentti.