How to Use equivalence in a Sentence

equivalence

noun
  • That’s a false equivalence a lot of the time.
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 17 June 2026
  • There cannot be this false moral equivalence in our discourse.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 17 Dec. 2024
  • In any case, his rhetoric has led to a distinctly alt-right false equivalence.
    — Kat Stoeffel, The Cut, 24 Aug. 2017
  • In that sense, there is no practical equivalence as a threat.
    — Andrew Sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, 1 Sep. 2017
  • It was sowed by those who draw equivalence between neo-Nazis and those who protest them.
    — Grace Segers, CBS News, 7 Aug. 2019
  • There is no equivalence, and to pretend that there is does both sides a disservice.
    — Victoria Coates, National Review, 14 May 2021
  • The logic for that is not much greater than linking coffee and tea prices based on their caffeine equivalence.
    — Michael Lynch, Forbes, 28 Sep. 2021
  • But that's a false equivalence, convenient for cable talk shows.
    — Jack Hitt, Wired, 13 Aug. 2020
  • There’s moral equivalence, and then there’s a total moral inversion.
    — The Editors, National Review, 20 Feb. 2025
  • In this way, the researchers expect to test whether the strong equivalence principle holds.
    — Gabriel Popkin, Discover Magazine, 12 Mar. 2015
  • In test after test over many centuries, the equivalence principle has held strong.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 21 Sep. 2022
  • There can be no moral equivalence between those who actively promote hate and those who oppose it.
    — Courant Community, 5 Sep. 2017
  • But the equivalence framework comes with limits and possible headaches.
    — Washington Post, 3 July 2019
  • Growing sick and tired — as my mom and grandmom would say — of the bulls--- and giving false equivalence to the bigotry, lies and hatred.
    — Washington Post, 15 June 2021
  • Along these lines, the translator is meant to be a conduit of perfect linguistic equivalence.
    — Sonia Colina, The Conversation, 7 Dec. 2023
  • The argument of whether a team is the ‘most deserving OR best’ is a false equivalence.
    — J. Brady McCollough, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2023
  • In making this argument, the writer assumes a false equivalence between the two camps.
    — Star Tribune, 3 Sep. 2020
  • The left ought to be concerned about this trend, but some have gone so far as to apply a false equivalence to conspiracy-mongering.
    — Jeet Heer, New Republic, 23 May 2017
  • But raw numbers alone don’t guarantee equivalence to what made Jordan a legend.
    — Rowan Fisher-Shotton, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Translation, too, is a practice of uneven equivalences.
    — Jan Steyn, The Dial, 10 Mar. 2026
  • There can, of course, be no moral equivalence between Stevens and a slavery apologist like Wigfall.
    — Andrew Ferguson, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2020
  • This is a telling, inauspicious equivalence.
    — Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
  • This is a telling, inauspicious equivalence.
    — Victor J. Blue, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
  • How much of an equivalence is there between the old Soviet Union and modern China?
    — WSJ, 15 Dec. 2021
  • And yet this claim of moral equivalence is no longer the smear of a foreign cynic but the view of the president of the United States himself.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 24 June 2020
  • With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it.
    — NBC News, 6 July 2019
  • Zermelo developed his other axioms to prove this equivalence.
    — Quanta Magazine, 29 Apr. 2026
  • This false equivalence between Nazis and Israel is a trope on the left, where anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism elide.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2018
  • There can be no equivalences drawn between the two political extremes in this country, especially when one extreme is led by a man who rarely speaks without lying.
    — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2025
  • If antimatter ignored the weak equivalence principle, the atoms might have drifted upward, repelled by Earth.
    — Paul Sutter, Space.com, 18 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'equivalence.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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