Adjective

(en adjective)

Of or relating to comparison.

* Granvill

The comparative faculty.

Using comparison as a method of study, or founded on something using it.

comparative anatomy

Approximated by comparison; relative.

* Whewell

The recurrence of comparative warmth and cold.

* Bentley

The bubble, by reason of its comparative levity to the fluid that encloses it, would necessarily ascend to the top.

(obsolete) Comparable; bearing comparison.

* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.137:

And need he had of slumber yet, for none / Had suffered more—his hardships were comparative / To those related in my grand-dad's Narrative .

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.