equality.

1. Equal status, rights, opportunities or treatment in the relevant respect.

2. Sameness of value or mathematical quantity under the relevant relation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• equality before the law
• equality of opportunity

On the page

Equality before the law required the same relevant legal standard rather than a guarantee of identical circumstances.

The policy’s claim to equality of opportunity was tested against barriers to access.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable for equal standing; singular equality, plural equalities for mathematical relations or statements. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: social explanation, distributional analysis, population description, concept distinction. Disciplines: social science, economics, public policy. Commonness: moderately common.