is understood of something that is equal in value, force, or effect, to another.

Equivalence is of various kinds, in proportions, in terms, and in things.

Equivalent Propositions. See Equifollence.

Equivalent Terms, are where several words that differ in sound have yet one and the same signification; as every body was there, and nobody was absent, nihil non, and omne.

Equivalent Things, are either moral, physical, or statistical. Moral, as when we say that the commanding or advising a murder is a guilt equivalent to that of the murderer. Physical, as when a man who has the strength of two men is said to be equivalent to two men. Sta- tistical, whereby a less weight becomes of equal force with a greater, by having its distance from the centre increased.

Equivocal terms or words, among logicians, are those which have a doubtful or double meaning.

According to Mr Locke, the doubtfulness or uncer- tainty of words has its cause more in the ideas them- selves, than in any incapacity of the words to signify them; and might be avoided, would people always use the same term to denote the same idea or collection of ideas: but, adds he, it is hard to find a discourse on any subject where this is the case; a practice which can only be imputed to folly or great dishonesty; since a man, in making up his accounts, might with as much fairness use the numerical characters sometimes for one sometimes for another collection of units.