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equity

/ˈɛk.wɪ.ti/noun

equity is spelled E-Q-U-I-T-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “equality vs equity” about 18,100 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, equity means “Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right"” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of equity is equities.

How many letters and syllables are in equity?

Letters6: E-Q-U-I-T-Y
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is equity?

Equity appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce equity?

  • /ˈɛk.wɪ.ti/
  • /i.kwɪʈ.i/

Equity has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-equity.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-equity.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with equity

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of equity

  • equities plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does equity mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right".

  2. 2

    The power of a court of law having extra-statutory discretion, to decide legal matters and to provide legal relief apart from, though not in violation of, the prevailing legal code; in some cases, a court "sitting in equity" may provide relief to a complainant should the code be found either inapplicable or insufficient to do so.

  3. 3

    A right which accrues to a party in a transaction because of the nature of the transaction itself, and which is exercisable upon a change of circumstances or conditions; in other words, an equitable claim.

    ...the mortgagor retains ‘equitable title’ or the ‘equity of redemption’….The equity of redemption permits the mortgagor to regain legal title to the mortgaged property upon satisfying the conditions of the mortgage...

  4. 4

    The body of law which was developed in the English Court of Chancery, which Court had extra-statutory discretion, and is now administered alongside the common law of Britain.

  5. 5

    Value of property minus liens or other encumbrances.

    I have a lot of equity in my house.

  6. 6

    Ownership, especially in terms of net monetary value of some business.

  7. 7

    Ownership interest in a company as determined by subtracting liabilities from assets.

  8. 8

    A player's expected share of the pot.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate equity?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of equity: DEI, Eq..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Equity in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchimpartialité, solidarité (justice, impartiality and fairness), action (ownership, especially in terms of net monetary…), capitaux propres (ownership interest in a company)
GermanGerechtigkeit, Gleichheit, Fairness, Billigkeit, Gleichstellung, Gleichberechtigung (justice, impartiality and fairness)
Portugueseequidade, equanimidade (justice, impartiality and fairness), valor real (ownership, especially in terms of net monetary…), valor líquido (the value of property minus liens or other…)
Spanishequidad, epiqueya (justice, impartiality and fairness), acciones (ownership, especially in terms of net monetary…), patrimonio neto (ownership interest in a company)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does equity come from?

From Middle English equitee, equytee, from Old French equité, from Latin aequitās (“uniformity; impartiality; fairness”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after equity