Definition

• a. - Equal in wortir or value, force, power, effect, import, and the like; alike in significance and value; of the same import or meaning.
• a. - Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; -- applied to magnitudes; as, a square may be equivalent to a triangle.
• a. - Contemporaneous in origin; as, the equivalent strata of different countries.
• n. - Something equivalent; that which is equal in value, worth, weight, or force; as, to offer an equivalent for damage done.
• n. - That comparative quantity by weight of an element which possesses the same chemical value as other elements, as determined by actual experiment and reference to the same standard. Specifically: (a) The comparative proportions by which one element replaces another in any particular compound; thus, as zinc replaces hydrogen in hydrochloric acid, their equivalents are 32.5 and 1. (b) The combining proportion by weight of a substance, or the number expressing this proportion, in any particular compound; as, the equivalents of hydrogen and oxygen in water are respectively 1 and 8, and in hydric dioxide 1 and 16.
• n. - A combining unit, whether an atom, a radical, or a molecule; as, in acid salt two or more equivalents of acid unite with one or more equivalents of base.