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Quality vs Equivalent - What's the difference?

quality | equivalent |

As nouns the difference between quality and equivalent

is that quality is (uncountable) level of excellence while equivalent is equivalent.

As adjectives the difference between quality and equivalent

is that quality is being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose while equivalent is equivalent.

quality

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) Level of excellence
  • This school is well-known for having teachers of high quality .
    Quality of life is usually determined by health, education, and income.
  • *
  • (countable) A property or an attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
  • One of the qualities of pure iron is that it does not rust easily.
    While being impulsive can be great for artists, it is not a desirable quality for engineers.
    Security, stability, and efficiency are good qualities of an operating system.
  • *
  • (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)
  • A peasant is not allowed to fall in love with a lady of quality .
    Membership of this golf club is limited to those of quality and wealth.
  • (uncountable) The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
  • (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
  • (emergency medicine, countable) The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.
  • To identify quality try asking, "what does it feel like?".

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "quality": high, good, excellent, exceptional, great, outstanding, satisfactory, acceptable, sufficient, adequate, poor, low, bad, inferior, dubious, environmental, visual, optical, industrial, total, artistic, educational, physical, musical, chemical, spiritual, intellectual, architectural, mechanical.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Coordinate terms

    * (a property that differentiates) quiddity

    Derived terms

    (quality) * human quality * industrial quality * quality time * quality of life * the quality, the Quality * total quality management * qualitative

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.
  • We only sell quality products.
    That was a quality game by Jim Smith.
    A quality system ensures products meet customer requirements.
  • * Harriet (a Cambridge University student), quoted in John Ahier, John Beck, Rob Moore, Graduate Citizens?: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education , Routledge (2003), ISBN 978-0-415-25722-0, page 114:
  • I mean a lot of the money that obviously goes into universities and their libraries and their facilities and their academics and stuff but I mean I haven’t had a very quality degree to be honest. I think the quality of my education has been crap . . .
  • * 2004 , Vance M. Thompson, MD, in J. Kevin Belville and Ronald J. Smith (editors), LASIK Techniques: Pearls and Pitfalls , SLACK Incorporated, ISBN 978-1-55642-622-3, page 187:
  • For one I wanted to have what I considered a very quality tracking device.
  • * 2008 , Carl Erskine, in Fay Vincent, We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved , Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-1-4165-5342-7, page 144:
  • A very quality ball club; that was the Braves.

    Derived terms

    * qualityness

    equivalent

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Similar or identical in value, meaning or effect; virtually equal.
  • * South
  • For now to serve and to minister, servile and ministerial, are terms equivalent .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=(Henry Petroski) , title=Opening Doors , volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3 , magazine= citation , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.}}
  • (mathematics) Of two sets, having a one-to-one correspondence; equinumerous.
  • * Comprehensive MCQ's in Mathematics , page 3:
  • Finite sets A and B are equivalent sets only when n''(A) = ''n''(B) ''i.e. , the number of elements in A and B are equal.
  • * 1950 , E. Kamke, Theory of Sets , page 16:
  • All enumerable sets are equivalent to each other, but not to any finite set.
  • * 2000 , N. L. Carothers, Real Analysis , page 18:
  • Equivalent' sets should, by rights, have the same "number" of elements. For this reason we sometimes say that '''equivalent sets have the same ''cardinality .
  • * 2006 , Joseph Breuer, Introduction to the Theory of Sets , page 41:
  • The equivalence theorem: If both M is equivalent''' to a subset N1 of N and N is '''equivalent''' to a subset M1 of M, then the sets M and N are '''equivalent to each other.
  • (mathematics) Relating to the corresponding elements of an equivalence relation.
  • (chemistry) Having the equal ability to combine.
  • (cartography) Of a map, equal-area.
  • (geometry) Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; applied to magnitudes.
  • A square may be equivalent to a triangle.

    Usage notes

    * (en-usage-equal)

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything that is virtually equal to something else, or has the same value, force, etc.
  • * Macaulay
  • He owned that, if the Test Act were repealed, the Protestants were entitled to some equivalent .
  • (chemistry) An equivalent weight.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make equivalent to; to equal.
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