Search Result for "equity": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. the difference between the market value of a property and the claims held against it;

2. the ownership interest of shareholders in a corporation;

3. conformity with rules or standards;
- Example: "the judge recognized the fairness of my claim"
[syn: fairness, equity]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Equity \Eq"ui*ty\, n.; pl. Equities. [F. ['e]quit['e], L. aequitas, fr. aequus even, equal. See Equal.] 1. Equality of rights; natural justice or right; the giving, or desiring to give, to each man his due, according to reason, and the law of God to man; fairness in determination of conflicting claims; impartiality. [1913 Webster] Christianity secures both the private interests of men and the public peace, enforcing all justice and equity. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster] 2. (Law) An equitable claim; an equity of redemption; as, an equity to a settlement, or wife's equity, etc. [1913 Webster] I consider the wife's equity to be too well settled to be shaken. --Kent. [1913 Webster] 3. (Law) A system of jurisprudence, supplemental to law, properly so called, and complemental of it. [1913 Webster] Equity had been gradually shaping itself into a refined science which no human faculties could master without long and intense application. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] Note: Equitable jurisprudence in England and in the United States grew up from the inadequacy of common-law forms to secure justice in all cases; and this led to distinct courts by which equity was applied in the way of injunctions, bills of discovery, bills for specified performance, and other processes by which the merits of a case could be reached more summarily or more effectively than by common-law suits. By the recent English Judicature Act (1873), however, the English judges are bound to give effect, in common-law suits, to all equitable rights and remedies; and when the rules of equity and of common law, in any particular case, conflict, the rules of equity are to prevail. In many jurisdictions in the United States, equity and common law are thus blended; in others distinct equity tribunals are still maintained. See Chancery. [1913 Webster] Equity of redemption (Law), the advantage, allowed to a mortgageor, of a certain or reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, after they have been forfeited at law by the nonpayment of the sum of money due on the mortgage at the appointed time. --Blackstone. Syn: Right; justice; impartiality; rectitude; fairness; honesty; uprightness. See Justice. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

equity n 1: the difference between the market value of a property and the claims held against it 2: the ownership interest of shareholders in a corporation 3: conformity with rules or standards; "the judge recognized the fairness of my claim" [syn: fairness, equity] [ant: inequity, unfairness]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

205 Moby Thesaurus words for "equity": Code Napoleon, Corpus Juris Canonici, Napoleonic code, Roman law, absolute interest, admiralty law, assessable stock, authorized capital stock, balance, benefit, blue chip, blue chip stock, blue law, body of law, borrowed stock, canon law, capital stock, capitulary, case law, chancery law, civil law, claim, code, code of laws, codification, coequality, coextension, commercial law, common, common law, common stock, compatibility, constitutional law, contingent interest, convertible preferred stock, corporate stock, corporation law, corpus juris, correlation, correspondence, criminal law, crown law, cumulative preferred stock, cyclical stock, decree law, defensibility, defensive stock, deferred stock, digest, digest of law, disinterest, disinterestedness, droit des gens, drumhead justice, dry law, dueness, easement, ecclesiastical law, eighth stock, equality, equation, equilibrium, equipoise, equipollence, equiponderance, equitable interest, equitableness, equities, equity security, equivalence, equivalency, estate, evenhandedness, evenness, exchangeability, fair play, fair-mindedness, fairness, fancies, floating stock, gag law, give-and-take, glamour issue, growth stock, guaranteed stock, high-flier, high-mindedness, holding, hot issue, hypothecated stock, identity, impartiality, inactive stock, income stock, interchangeability, interest, international law, issued capital stock, judiciousness, jus civile, jus commune, jus inter gentes, jus publicum, justice, justifiability, justifiableness, justification, justness, law merchant, lawfulness, legality, letter stock, levelness, lex domicilii, lex fori, lex loci, lex mercatorum, lex non scripta, lex scripta, lex situs, likeness, limitation, loaned stock, local law, long stock, martial law, measure for measure, meetness, nemesis, neutrality, nonassessable stock, nonvoting stock, objectivity, open-mindedness, ordinary shares, pale blue chip, pandect, par, parallelism, parity, part, participating preferred stock, penal code, penal law, penny stock, percentage, poetic justice, poise, positive law, preference stock, preferred stock, properness, proportion, propriety, protective stock, public law, quarter stock, rails, retributive justice, reverse split, right, right of entry, rightfulness, rightness, rude justice, sameness, scales of justice, sea law, seasoned stock, settlement, share ledger, shares, short stock, special situation stock, specialty stock, speculative stock, split, stake, standard stock, statute law, steels, stock, stock ledger, stock list, stock split, stocks, strict settlement, substantive law, summary justice, symmetry, ten-share unit stock, title, tolerance, treasury stock, trust, unissued capital stock, unwritten law, use, utilities, vested interest, voting stock, warrantability, warrantedness, what is right, written law
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EQUITY. In the early history of the law, the sense affixed to this word was exceedingly vague and uncertain. This was owing, in part, to the fact, that the chancellors of those days were either statesmen or ecclesiastics, perhaps not very scrupulous in the exercise of power. It was then asserted that equity was bounded by no certain limits or rules, and that it was alone controlled by conscience and natural justice. 3 Bl. Com. 43-3, 440, 441. 2. In a moral sense, that is called equity which is founded, ex oequo et bono, in natural justice, in honesty, and in right. In an enlarged. legal view, "equity, in its true and genuine meaning, is the soul and spirit of the law; positive law is construed, and rational law is made by it. In this, equity is made synonymous with justice; in that, to the true and sound interpretation of the rule." 3 Bl. Com. 429. This equity is justly said to be a supplement to the laws; but it must be directed by science. The Roman law will furnish him with sure guides, and safe rules. In that code will be found, fully developed, the first principles and the most important consequences of natural right. "From the moment when principles of decision came to be acted upon in chancery," says Mr. Justice Story, "the Roman law furnished abundant materials to erect a superstructure, at once solid, convenient and lofty, adapted to human wants, and enriched by the aid of human wisdom, experience and learning." Com. on Eq. Jur. Sec. 23 Digest, 54. 3. But equity has a more restrained and qualified meaning. The remedies for the redress of wrongs, and for the enforcement of rights, are distinguished into two classes, first, those which are administered in courts of common law; and, secondly, those which are administered in courts of equity. Rights which are recognized and protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the former courts, are called legal rights and legal injuries. Rights which are recognized and protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the latter courts only, are called equitable rights and equitable injuries The former are said to be rights and wrongs at common law, and the remedies, therefore, are remedies at common law; the latter are said to be rights and wrongs in equity, and the remedies, therefore, are remedies in equity. Equity jurisprudence may, therefore, properly be said to be that portion of remedial justice which is exclusively administered by a court of equity, as contradistinguished from that remedial justice, which is exclusively administered by a court of law. Story, Eq. Sec. 25. Vide Chancery, and the authorities there cited; and 3 Chit. Bl. Com. 425 n. 1. Dane's Ab. h.t.; Ayl. Pand. 37; Fonbl. Eq. b. 1, c. 1; Wooddes. Lect. 114 Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

EQUITY, COURT OF. A court of equity is one which administers justice, where there are no legal rights, or legal rights, but courts of law do not afford a complete, remedy, and where the complainant has also an equitable right. Vide Chancery.