Inequality Meaning
/ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAbsence of equality.
nounAbsence of equality., A condition or state (of social, cultural, or legal matters) that is not equal; especially, such a condition that is thereby also unfair.
Sentence Examples
No inequality should be allowed to exist between men and women.
During the presentation the speaker talked mainly about gender inequality.
We need to tackle inequality of opportunity wherever we find it.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recent report showed growing ____ between the rich and the poor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The speaker talked about the growing social ____ between the very rich and the very poor.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English inequalite, from Old French inequalité, from Medieval Latin inaequālitās, from Latin inaequālis (“unequal”), from in- (“not”) + aequālis (“equal”). Morphologically inequal + -ity and in- + equality.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The traditional inequalities of marriage, such as changing her surname to his."
— 1976 February 14, A. Nolder Gay, “The View from the Closet”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 33, page 17:
"In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised."
— 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19:
"With the growing awareness of climate change, congestion, and regional inequality, rail transport has re-emerged as a solution."
— 2025 July 9, Oliver Wheeler, “Action stations...”, in RAIL, number 1039, page 68:
"I then specify a set of new tight Bell inequalities for arbitrary event spaces -- the "even/odd" inequalities -- which have a straightforward interpretation when expressed in terms of multideviations."
— 2015, Brandon Fogel, “Multideviations: The hidden structure of Bell's theorems”, in arXiv:
"When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse, we should remember that its smoothness, upon which so much of its beauty depends, is mainly due to all the inequalities having been levelled by worms."
— 1881, Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, page 313:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recent report showed growing ____ between the rich and the poor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The speaker talked about the growing social ____ between the very rich and the very poor.