equality

English

Alternative forms

• æquality (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French equalité (modern French égalité), from Latin aequālitās, aequālitātem. Doublet of equity.

Morphologically equal +‎ -ity

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) enPR: ĭʹkwŏ-lĭ-tē IPA^(key): /ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/,

Noun

equality (usually uncountable, plural equalities)

1. The fact of being equal.
2. (mathematics) The fact of being equal, of having the same value. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. The equal treatment of people irrespective of social or cultural differences.
   • 1964 December 13, Harry S. Truman, 8:26 from the start, in MP77-34 KCMO-TV News Segments, 1964-1966‎, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

     I think somebody asked me the other day when I was holding a conference over here at the library if a woman could be President of the United States. Well I said they've taken over everything else in the world, why not that? [Laughter] And that wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't happen one of these days because the country believes in equality.

   • 2020 December 12, Ouyang Fei, “The Issue of Equality in the U.S. Election and Its Communist Roots”, in Minghui‎:

     Jefferson was talking about the equality of natural human rights. You have freedom, and I have freedom. You and I have equal rights to freedom.

Synonyms

• (fact of being equal): equivalence parity

Antonyms

• (fact of being equal): difference, inequality, nonequivilence
• (equal treatment of people): discrimination, inequality

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “equality”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• equality in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "equality" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 117.
• “equality”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.