Other forms: equals, equaled, equaling
Equal means the same in size, number or value. Two equal halves of a cake, equal pay for the same work, three plus one equals four.
It works as a verb — six times seven equals forty-two — and also for matching something already achieved: she equalled the world record. As a noun, your equal is somebody on your level, which is why 'treat me as an equal' is a demand rather than a description. The noun for the idea is equality, the adverb is equally, and the negative is unequal. Two phrases are worth carrying about: equal to the task means able to handle it, and all things being equal means if nothing else changes. Watch the past tense — British English writes equalled, American English equaled.
1adjectiveequalThe same in size, number, value or status.
“Cut the string into four equal lengths.”
synonyms: identical, equivalent
2verbamountTo be the same as in amount or value.
“Six times seven equals forty-two.”
3verbmatchTo match a standard or a result that somebody else has already reached.
“He equalled the club record on his first attempt.”
4nounrankA person of the same rank, ability or standing as another.
“As a chess player she has no equal in the town.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Equal comes straight from Latin aequālis, borrowed into Middle English by scholars who kept its Latin shape. The same Latin word had already travelled into English by a softer, French-worn route as egal. Two arrivals of one word, centuries apart, sitting in the dictionary side by side.
Middle English
equal
English, today
equal
From Middle English equal. From Middle English equal, from Latin aequālis. a doublet of aequalis and egal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA