equality

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

• (US) enPR: ĭʹkwŏl-ĭ-tē IPA^(key): /ɪˈkwɑl.ɪ.ti/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

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, Truman, Harry S., MP77-34 KCMO-TV News Segments, 1964-1966‎, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162, 8:26 from the start:

     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

• equality sign
• marriage equality

 

Translations

fact of being equal

Amharic: እኩልነት (ʾəkulnät) Arabic: مُسَاوَاة‎ f (musāwāh) Gulf Arabic: مساواة‎ (mʊsawat, mʊsawa) Armenian: հավասարություն (hy) (havasarutʿyun) Azerbaijani: bərabərlik Belarusian: ро́ўнасць f (róŭnascʹ) Bulgarian: ра́венство (bg) n (rávenstvo), еднаквост (bg) f (ednakvost) Catalan: igualtat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 平等 (zh) (píngděng), 均等 (zh) (jūnděng) Czech: rovnocennost f, rovnost (cs) f Danish: lighed (da) c Dutch: gelijkheid (nl) f Esperanto: egaleco Finnish: yhdenvertaisuus (fi), samanvertaisuus French: égalité (fr) f Galician: igualdade (gl) f Georgian: თანასწორობა (tanasc̣oroba) German: Gleichheit (de) f Gothic: 𐌹𐌱𐌽𐌰𐍃𐍃𐌿𐍃 m (ibnassus) Greek: ισότητα (el) f (isótita) Ancient: ἰσότης f (isótēs) Guaraní: tekojoja Hebrew: שוויון‎ m (shivyón) Hindi: समानता (hi) f (samāntā) Hungarian: egyenlőség (hu) Ido: egaleso (io) Ilocano: arked Irish: comhionannas m, ionannas m Italian: parità (it) f, uguaglianza (it) f, eguaglianza f Japanese: 平等 (ja) (びょうどう, byōdō), 均等 (ja) (きんとう, kintō) Korean: 평등 (ko) (pyeongdeung), 균등 (ko) (gyundeung) Latin: aequitās f Latvian: vienlīdzība f Lithuanian: lygybė f Macedonian: еднаквост f (ednakvost) Malayalam: തുല്യത (ml) (tulyata) Maori: ōritetanga Neapolitan: eguaglianza f Norman: êgalité f Norwegian: Bokmål: likhet (no) m or f Nynorsk: likskap m Occitan: egalitat (oc) f Old English: efnlīcnes f Persian: برابری‎ (fa) (barâbari) Plautdietsch: Äwareenheit f Polish: równość (pl) f Portuguese: igualdade (pt) f Romanian: egalitate (ro) Russian: ра́венство (ru) n (rávenstvo) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: једнакост f Roman: jednakost (sh) f Slovak: rovnosť f Slovene: enakost f Spanish: igualdad (es) f Tajik: баробарӣ (barobarī) Turkish: eşitlik (tr) Ukrainian: рі́вність f (rívnistʹ) Urdu: مساوات‎ (musāvāt), برابری‎ (barābarī), یکسانیت‎ (yaksāniyat) Uzbek: tenglik (uz), baravarlik (uz) Welsh: cydraddoldeb f

mathematics: fact of having the same value

Arabic: تَسَاوٍ‎ m (tasāwin) Armenian: հավասարություն (hy) (havasarutʿyun) Azerbaijani: bərabərlik Bulgarian: ра́венство (bg) n (rávenstvo) Dutch: gelijkheid (nl) f Finnish: yhtäsuuruus (fi) French: égalité (fr) f Galician: igualdade (gl) f German: Gleichheit (de) f Greek: ισότητα (el) f (isótita) Ancient: ἰσότης f (isótēs) Hungarian: egyenlőség (hu) Macedonian: равенство n (ravenstvo) Old English: ġelīcnes f, efnlīcnes f Portuguese: igualdade (pt) f Russian: ра́венство (ru) n (rávenstvo) Spanish: paridad (es) f, igualdad (es) f Swahili: usawa (sw) Swedish: likhet (sv) c

equal treatment of people irrespective of social or cultural differences

Albanian: barazi (sq) f Amharic: እኩልነት (ʾəkulnät) Arabic: مُسَاوَاة‎ f (musāwāh) Armenian: հավասարություն (hy) (havasarutʿyun) Azerbaijani: bərabərlik Belarusian: ро́ўнасць f (róŭnascʹ), раўнапра́ўе n (raŭnapráŭje), раўнапра́ўнасць f (raŭnapráŭnascʹ) Bulgarian: равнопра́вие (bg) n (ravnoprávie) Catalan: igualtat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 平等 (zh) (píngděng) Czech: rovnost (cs) f Danish: ligebehandling c, ligestilling c Dutch: gelijkberechtiging (nl) f Estonian: võrdsus, samaväärsus Finnish: tasa-arvo (fi), tasa-arvoisuus (fi) French: égalité (fr) f Galician: igualdade (gl) f Georgian: თანასწორობა (tanasc̣oroba) German: Gleichberechtigung (de) f Hindi: समानता (hi) f (samāntā) Hungarian: egyenlőség (hu) Icelandic: jafnrétti (is) n Irish: comhionannas m Italian: egualità f, ugualità f, uguaglianza (it) f, eguaglianza Japanese: 平等 (ja) (びょうどう, byōdō) Kazakh: теңдік (teñdık) Korean: 평등(平等) (ko) (pyeongdeung) Kyrgyz: теңдик (ky) (teŋdik) Latvian: vienlīdzība f Lithuanian: lygybė f Macedonian: рамнопра́вност f (ramnoprávnost) Malay: kesetaraan, kesamaan (ms) Malayalam: സമത്വം (ml) (samatvaṃ) Maori: mana taurite Ngazidja Comorian: usawa class 11 Norwegian: Bokmål: likestilling m or f Nynorsk: likestilling f Old English: ġelīcnes f, efenlīcnes f Persian: برابری‎ (fa) (barâbari) Polish: równość (pl) f, adekwacja f (literary) Portuguese: equidade (pt) f, igualdade (pt) f Romanian: egalitate (ro) f Russian: равнопра́вие (ru) n (ravnoprávije), ра́венство (ru) n (rávenstvo) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: равноправност f, једнакост f Roman: ravnopravnost (sh) f, jednakost (sh) f Slovak: rovnosť f Slovene: enakopravnost f, enakost f Spanish: igualdad (es) f, paridad (es) f Swahili: usawa (sw) Swedish: likabehandling c, jämlikhet (sv) c, jämställdhet (sv) c Tajik: баробарӣ (barobarī) Turkish: eşitlik (tr) Turkmen: deňlik Ukrainian: рі́вність f (rívnistʹ), рівнопра́вність f (rivnoprávnistʹ) (equal rights), рівнопра́в'я n (rivnoprávʺja) Uzbek: tenglik (uz) Vietnamese: sự bình đẳng (vi) Welsh: cydraddoldeb f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: (please verify) uguaglianza (it) f Swedish: jämlikhet (sv)

References

• equality at 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