"Equivalent" is a word in LAW AND LEGAL, ENGLISH

In patent law. Any act or substance which is known in the arts as a proper substitute for some other act or substance employed as an element in the invention, whose substitution for that other act or substance does not in any manner vary the idea of means. It possesses three char-acteristics: It must be capable of performing the same office in the Invention as the act or substance whose place it supplies; lt must relate to the form or embodiment alone and not affect in any degree the idea of means; and it must have been known to the arts at the date of the patent as endowed with this capability. Duff Mfg. Co. v. Forgie, 59 Fed. 772, 8 C. C. A. 261; Norton v. Jensen, 49 Fed. S»>8, 1 C. C. A. 452; Imhaeuser v. Buerk, 101 U. S. G55, 25 L. Ed. 945; Carter Mach. Co. v. Hanes (C. C.) 70 Fed. 859; Schillinger v. Cranford, 4 Mackey (D. C.) 466

A combining unit, whether an atom, a radical, or a
molecule; as, in acid salt two or more equivalents of acid unite with
one or more equivalents of base.

Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; --
applied to magnitudes; as, a square may be equivalent to a triangle.

Contemporaneous in origin; as, the equivalent strata of
different countries.

To make the equivalent to; to equal; equivalence.

That comparative quantity by weight of an element which
possesses the same chemical value as other elements, as determined by
actual experiment and reference to the same standard. Specifically: (a)
The comparative proportions by which one element replaces another in
any particular compound; thus, as zinc replaces hydrogen in
hydrochloric acid, their equivalents are 32.5 and 1. (b) The combining
proportion by weight of a substance, or the number expressing this
proportion, in any particular compound; as, the equivalents of hydrogen
and oxygen in water are respectively 1 and 8, and in hydric dioxide 1
and 16.

Equal in wortir or value, force, power, effect, import,
and the like; alike in significance and value; of the same import or
meaning.

Something equivalent; that which is equal in value,
worth, weight, or force; as, to offer an equivalent for damage done.