equivalent
/ɪˈkwɪvələnt/adjective, noun, verb
equivalent is spelled E-Q-U-I-V-A-L-E-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is equivilent: about 170 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 29 of all searches for the word. Equivalent is an adjective meaning “Similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal”.
How many letters and syllables are in equivalent?
| Letters | 10: E-Q-U-I-V-A-L-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 32 times per million words; the 2,992nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 4; the most searched, equivilent, about 170 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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 do you spell equivalent?
Equivalent is spelled E-Q-U-I-V-A-L-E-N-T. 4 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for equivalent in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is equivalent?
Equivalent appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,992nd 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 equivalent?
- /ɪˈkwɪvələnt/
Equivalent has 4 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: En-us-equivalent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of equivalent
- more equivalent comparative
- most equivalent superlative
- eq.
- equivalents plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- equivalenting participle, present
- equivalented participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does equivalent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.
To burn calories, a thirty-minute jog is equivalent to a couple of hamburgers.
- 2
Of two sets, having a one-to-one correspondence.
- 3
Relating to the corresponding elements of an equivalence relation.
- 4
Of two categories, (informally) such that one is essentially a relabeling of the other; (formally) related by a pair of functors such the composition of the one with the other is naturally isomorphic to the identity functor.
- 5
Having the equal ability to combine.
- 6
Of a map, equal-area.
- 7
Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; applied to magnitudes.
A square may be equivalent to a triangle.
noun
- 1
Anything that is virtually equal to something else, or has the same value, force, etc.
- 2
An equivalent weight.
verb
- 1
To make equivalent to; to equal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate equivalent?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of equivalent: eq., equiv, equiv..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Equivalent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | équivalent |
| German | gleichwertig, entsprechend, äquivalent , Entsprechung, Äquivalent |
| Portuguese | equivalente |
| Spanish | equivalente |
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 equivalent come from?
From Latin aequivalentem, accusative singular of aequivalēns, present active participle of aequivaleō (“to be equivalent, have equal power”). By surface analysis, equi- + -valent. Mostly displaced native Middle English efenmete (See evenmete).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).