# equation

Pronunciation: say "i-KWAY-zhuhn" /ɪˈkweɪʒən/

## Noun

1. A mathematical statement that two expressions have the same value, written as the two expressions joined by an equal sign.
   - Simple: A math statement that says two amounts are equal, with an equal sign between them.
   - _She balanced the equation by adding a coefficient to each side._
   - _Physicists use equations to describe how objects move through space._
2. The act or process of treating two or more things as equal, or the state of those things being identical.
   - Simple: The act of treating two or more things as equal or the same.
   - _His equation of wealth with virtue troubled the philosophers in the room._
   - _The constant equation of silence with agreement leads to misunderstandings._
3. A small adjustment that compensates for consistent bias in the results of an observation.
   - Simple: A small change added to a measurement to fix regular errors in what was observed.
   - _The astronomer applied an equation to account for the instrument's slow drift._
   - _Tables of equations let observers correct raw timings for systematic bias._

## Origin

It comes from Old French, from Latin aequātiō ("an equalizing"). It can be analyzed as equate plus the suffix -ion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/equation (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).