EQUIV'ALENT, adjective Equal in value or worth. In barter, the goods given are supposed to be equivalent to the goods received. equivalent in value or worth, is tautological.

1. Equal in force, power or effect. A steam engine may have force or power equivalent to that of thirty horses.

2. Equal in moral force, cogency or effect on the mind. Circumstantial evidence may be almost equivalent to full proof.

3. Of the same import or meaning. Friendship and amity are equivalent terms.

For now to serve and to minister, servile and ministerial, are terms equivalent

Equivalent propositions in logic are called also equipollent.

4. Equal in excellence or moral worth.

EQUIV'ALENT, noun That which is equal in value, weight, dignity or force, with something else. The debtor cannot pay his creditor in money, but he will pay him an equivalent Damages in money cannot be an equivalent for the loss of a limb.

1. In chimistry, equivalent is the particular weight or quantity of any substance which is necessary to saturate any other with which it can combine. It is ascertained that chimical combinations are definite, that is, the same body always enters into combination in the same weight, or if it can combine with a particular body in more than one proportion, the higher proportion is always a multiple of the lower.