desiguales

Desiguales is a Spanish adjective meaning not equal or lacking equality. It is used to describe differences in size, amount, quality, status, or outcomes among two or more elements. The form desiguales is used for plural nouns (for both masculine and feminine genders), while the singular forms are desigual (masculine and feminine). The word is formed with the prefix des- meaning negation and the root igual meaning equal.

In mathematical language, the related noun desigualdad denotes inequality, and its plural desigualdades refers to inequalities or relations that are not equal. The adjective desiguales, by contrast, is more common in everyday or descriptive usage to refer to non-uniform distributions, uneven results, or unequal treatment, such as "resultados desiguales" or "oportunidades desiguales." In social and economic contexts, desiguales often appears in discussions of disparities in access, income, or opportunities.

Etymology traces desiguales to des- plus igual, sharing roots with other Romance languages (for example, Portuguese desigual, French inégal, Italian disuguale). Pronunciation in standard Spanish places the stress on the syllable containing the root -gua-, roughly des-i-GWA-les.

Desiguales is a versatile term in discourse about difference and disparity, used across topics from statistics and everyday observation to social commentary. Related terms include desigualdad, desigualdades, and the broader concept of inequality in various domains such as social, economic, and geographic contexts.