Equal vs Quite - What's the difference?
equal | quite |
(label) The same in all respects.
* (1671-1743)
Exactly identical, having the same value.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10
, passage=The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.}}
(label) Fair, impartial.
* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :
* Bible, (w) xviii. 29
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
(label) Adequate; sufficiently capable or qualified.
* 1881 , (Jane Austen), ,
* (1609-1674)
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
* (Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)
(label) Not variable; equable; uniform; even.
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
(label) Intended for voices of one kind only, either all male or all female; not mixed.
(mathematics) To be equal to, to have the same value as; to correspond to.
To be equivalent to; to match
* 2004 , Mary Levy and Jim Kelly, Marv Levy: Where Else Would You Rather Be?
(informal) To have as its consequence.
A person or thing of equal status to others.
* Addison
(obsolete) State of being equal; equality.
(lb) To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.
#With verbs, especially past participles.
#*, Book I:
#*:Thus when they had the witch disrobed quight , / And all her filthy feature open showne, / They let her goe at will, and wander wayes vnknowne.
#*2005 , Adrian Searle, The Guardian , 4 October:
#*:Nobuyoshi Araki has been called a monster, a pornographer and a genius - and the photographer quite agrees.
#With prepositional phrases and spatial adverbs.
#*1891 , (Thomas Nelson Page), On Newfound River :
#*:Margaret passed quite through the pines, and reached the opening beyond which was what was once the yard, but was now, except for a strip of flower-border and turf which showed care, simply a tangle of bushes and briars.
#*2010 , Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian , 30 October:
#*:Religion and parochial etiquette are probed to reveal unhealthy, and sometimes shockingly violent, internal desires quite at odds with the surface life of a town in which tolerance is preached.
#With predicative adjectives.
#*1914 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (The Son of Tarzan) :
#*:El Adrea was quite dead. No more will he slink silently upon his unsuspecting prey.
#*:
#*:In Lejeuneaceae vegetative branches normally originate from the basiscopic basal portion of a lateral segment half, as in the Radulaceae, and the associated leaves, therefore, are quite unmodified.
#With attributive adjectives, following an (especially indefinite) article; chiefly as expressing contrast, difference etc.
#*2003 , (Richard Dawkins), A Devil's Chaplain :
#*:When I warned him that his words might be offensive to identical twins, he said that identical twins were a quite different case.
#*2011 , Peter Preston, The Observer , 18 September:
#*:Create a new, quite separate, private company – say Murdoch Newspaper Holdings – and give it all, or most of, the papers that News Corp owns.
#Preceding nouns introduced by the indefinite article. Chiefly in negative constructions.
#*1791 , (James Boswell), (Life of Samuel Johnson) :
#*:I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently.
#*1920 , (John Galsworthy), (In Chancery) :
#*:And with a prolonged sound, not quite' a sniff and not ' quite a snort, he trod on Euphemia's toe, and went out, leaving a sensation and a faint scent of barley?sugar behind him.
#With adverbs of manner.
#*2009 , John F. Schmutz, The Battle of the Crater: A complete history :
#*:However, the proceedings were quite carefully orchestrated to produce what seemed to be a predetermined outcome.
#*2011 , Bob Burgess, The Guardian , 18 October:
#*:Higher education institutions in the UK are, quite rightly, largely autonomous.
(lb) In a fully justified sense; truly, perfectly, actually.
#Coming before the indefinite article and an attributive adjective. (Now largely merged with moderative senses, below.)
#*1898 , (Charles Gavrice), Nell of Shorne Mills :
#*:"My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?" "Quite a perfect success," said Drake.
#*2001 , Paul Brown, The Guardian , 7 February:
#*:While the government claims to lead the world with its plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the figures tell quite a different story.
#With plain adjectives, past participles, and adverbs.
#*
#*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
#*2010 , Dave Hill, The Guardian , 5 November:
#*:London Underground is quite unique in how many front line staff it has, as anyone who has travelled on the Paris Metro or New York Subway will testify.
#Coming before the definite article and an attributive superlative.
#*1910 , ‘(Saki)’, "The Soul of Laploshka", Reginald in Russia :
#*:Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, and quite one of the most entertaining.
#*1923 , "The New Pictures", Time , 8 October:
#*:Scaramouche has already been greeted as the finest French Revolution yet brought to the screen-and even if you are a little weary of seeing a strongly American band of sans-culottes demolish a pasteboard Paris, you should not miss Scaramouche, for it is quite the best thing Rex Ingram has done since The Four Horsemen.
#Before a noun preceded by an indefinite article; now often with ironic implications that the noun in question is particularly noteworthy or remarkable.
#*1830 , Senate debate, 15 April:
#*:To debauch the Indians with rum and cheat them of their land was quite a Government affair, and not at all criminal; but to use rum to cheat them of their peltry, was an abomination in the sight of the law.
#*2011 , Gilbert Morris, The Crossing :
#*:“Looks like you and Clay had quite a party,” she said with a glimmer in her dark blue eyes.
#Before a noun preceded by the definite article.
#*1871 , (Anthony Trollope), (The Eustace Diamonds) :
#*:It is quite the proper thing for a lady to be on intimate, and even on affectionate, terms with her favourite clergyman, and Lizzie certainly had intercourse with no clergyman who was a greater favourite with her than Mr. Emilius.
#*2006 , Sherman Alexie, "When the story stolen is your own", Time , 6 February:
#*:His memoir features a child named Tommy Nothing Fancy who suffers from and dies of a seizure disorder. Quite the coincidence, don't you think?
#
To a moderate extent or degree; somewhat, rather.
As nouns the difference between equal and quite
is that equal is a person or thing of equal status to others while quite is a series of passes made with the cape to distract the bull.As an adjective equal
is the same in all respects.As a verb equal
is to be equal to, to have the same value as; to correspond to.As an adverb quite is
To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.As an interjection quite is
indicates agreement; "exactly so".equal
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic) * (archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)- They who are not disposed to receive them may let them alone or reject them; it is equal to me.
- it could not but much redound to the lustre of your milde and equall Government, when as private persons are hereby animated to thinke ye better pleas'd with publick advice, then other statists have been delighted heretofore with publicke flattery.
- Are not my ways equal ?
- Thee, O Jove, no equal judge I deem.
p. 311
- her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged.
- The Scots trusted not their own numbers as equal to fight with the English.
- It is not permitted to me to make my commendations equal to your merit.
- whose voice an equal messenger / Conveyed thy meaning mild.
- an equal temper
Usage notes
*Synonyms
* (the same in all respects) identical * (exactly identical) equivalent, identical * (unvarying) even, fair, uniform, unvaryingVerb
- Two plus two equals four.
- There was an even more remarkable attendance figure that underscores the devotion exhibited by our fans, because it was in 1991 that they set a single season in-stadium attendance record that has never been equaled .
- Losing this deal equals losing your job.
- Might does not equal right.
Synonyms
* (to be equal to) be, is * (sense) entail, imply, lead to, mean, result in, spellNoun
(en noun)- We're all equals here.
- This beer has no equal .
- Those who were once his equals envy and defame him.
- (Spenser)
