If something is equitable, people are treated in a fair way — not always given the same amount, but given what seems right in the situation. Equal means “the same for everyone.” Equitable means “fair,” which can mean different help for different people. A teacher who gives every student the same extra ten minutes is being equal; a teacher who gives extra time only to the student who cannot see the board well is trying to be equitable. The word feels formal. You meet it in law, in talk about money and rights, and in careful writing. In everyday talk, people often just say fair. In law there is also a whole old idea of “equity” — fairness when the strict rule would be too hard — and equitable belongs to that family of meaning too.