equipment
Americannoun
-
equipment
plural
-
anything kept, furnished, or provided for a specific purpose.
- Synonyms:
- accouterment, paraphernalia, apparatus
-
the act of equipping a person or thing.
-
the state of being equipped.
-
the personal knowledge and skill required for a task, occupation, etc..
He has the necessary equipment for law.
-
the rolling stock of a railroad.
noun
-
an act or instance of equipping
-
the items so provided
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a set of tools, devices, kit, etc, assembled for a specific purpose, such as a soldier's kit and weapons
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of equipment
Explanation
A motherboard and a graphics processor? Duct tape? A circular saw? A solar panel? Depending on what you’re up to, all these things can be considered equipment, which is whatever you need to complete a task. Right away you probably notice that a big chunk of the word equipment is made up of another word, the common verb equip — meaning "to provide someone with the tools they need for a specific task." Add equip to -ment (the suffix of choice when you want to turn a verb into a noun) and voilà! Like magic, the verb changes into a noun, and you end up with equipment: the materials you get when you are equipped to do a particular thing.
Vocabulary lists containing equipment
"Earthquake"
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Scientific Investigation and Reasoning
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The system is also used in high-end medical equipment and robotics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
They are common in Congolese cities, which largely lack firefighting equipment, and are often caused by a lack of spacing between buildings and illegal connections to the power grid, specialists say.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
While drivers know gas prices, truckers and businesses are sharply aware of diesel prices, as the fuel powers tractor trailers, freight trains and farm equipment.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
After it overshot the runway, the plane - Amazon Prime Air Flight 7598 - struck equipment on the ground, hit a white Ford van, then continued onward through a perimeter fence.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
“You mean the ones with ladders that only reached to the sixth floor and the faulty equipment? They weren’t exactly helpful. Those women had no way out and no one who could save them.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
