- a person or thing of the same quality or with the same status, rights, etc. as another
- She treats the people who work for her as her equals.
- be the equal of somebody/something Our cars are the equal of those produced anywhere in the world.
Extra ExamplesTopics Social issuesb2- An interview should be a conversation between equals.
- He did not regard himself as her intellectual equal.
- She talks even to small children as equals.
- I shall never be his equal at chess.
- an acceptance of women as the equals of men
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- intellectual
- social
- consider somebody (as)
- regard somebody as
- treat somebody as
- …
- as an equal
- between equals
- without equal
- …
- be somebody’s equal
- first among equals
- have few equals
- …
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin aequalis, from aequus ‘even, level, equal’.Definitions on the go
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Idioms
See equal in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee equal in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbe without equal | have no equal | have no/few equals
- (formal) to be better than anything else or anyone else of the same type
- He is a player without equal.
- As a family holiday destination, the seaside has no equal.
Extra Examples- His guitar playing is without equal.
- In fighting, they had no equals.
- As a poet, he had few equals.
- When it comes to plain speaking, she has few equals.
first among equals
- the person or thing with the highest status in a group
- He was regarded as the ‘first among equals’ by the other office clerks.
Check pronunciation:
equal