uguale

Uguale is an Italian adjective meaning "equal" or "the same." It describes things that have the same value, amount, or quality. The form is gender and number sensitive: the singular is uguale for both masculine and feminine nouns (un oggetto uguale, una cosa uguale), and the plural is uguali (due oggetti uguali, due cose uguali). The adjective agrees in number and gender with the noun it modifies.

Origin and related terms: uguale derives from Latin aequalis (equal). Related Italian words include uguaglianza (equality), ugualmente (equally), and stesso (the same, but with a different nuance).

Usage: In arithmetic or comparisons, Italian uses "è uguale a" to express equality, as in "Due più due è uguale a quattro" or "x è uguale a y." The symbol "=" is commonly called "segno di uguale" in mathematics, and Italian-language texts use "uguale a" when reading formulas.

Notes: "Uguale" is often preferred when emphasizing sameness, whereas "stesso" is used to stress identity or sameness between two references, as in "lo stesso libro" (the same book) versus "due cose uguali" (two things that are the same). The adjective can also occur in comparative or figurative constructions to indicate parity or equivalence in quality or status.