Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make equal or equivalent.
  • intransitive verb To reduce to a standard or an average; equalize.
  • intransitive verb To consider, treat, or depict as equal or equivalent.
  • intransitive verb To be or seem to be equal; correspond.
  • intransitive verb To result in.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In entomology, smooth, as a surface; having no special elevations or depressions. Also equal.
  • To make equal or equivalent; regard or treat as equal.
  • To reduce to an average; make such correction or allowance in as will reduce to a common standard of comparison, or will bring to a true result: as, to equate observations in astronomy.
  • To be equal or equivalent to; equal.
  • To join by the sign of equality.
  • In the preparation of the running schedules for trains, to make an allowance of an imaginary increase in length of line, on account of and as an equivalent of the retardation due to curves.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make equal; to reduce to an average; to make such an allowance or correction in as will reduce to a common standard of comparison; to reduce to mean time or motion
  • transitive verb (Railroad Engin.) adding to the measured distance one mile for each twenty feet of ascent.
  • transitive verb adding half a mile for each 360 degrees of curvature.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To consider equal, to state as being equivalent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make equal, uniform, corresponding, or matching
  • verb be equivalent or parallel, in mathematics
  • verb consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English equaten, from Latin aequāre, aequāt-, from aequus, even, equal.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aequātus, past participle of aequō.

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