difference vs equivalence

difference

noun
  • The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result. 

  • A disagreement or argument. 

  • An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency. 

  • A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else. 

  • The quality of being different. 

  • The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia. 

  • The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B). 

  • Significant change in or effect on a situation or state. 

  • A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB). 

equivalence

verb
  • To be equivalent or equal to; to counterbalance. 

noun
  • The quantity of the combining power of an atom, expressed in hydrogen units; the number of hydrogen atoms can combine with, or be exchanged for; valency. 

  • A number in intersection theory. A positive-dimensional variety sometimes behaves formally as if it were a finite number of points; this number is its equivalence. 

  • An equivalence relation; ≡; ~ 

  • A Boolean operation that is TRUE when both input variables are TRUE or both input variables are FALSE, but otherwise FALSE; the XNOR function. 

  • The condition of being equivalent or essentially equal. 

  • The relationship between two propositions that are either both true or both false. 

  • The degree to which a term or text in one language is semantically similar to its translated counterpart. 

How often have the words difference and equivalence occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )