Phrase guide

differential equation

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An equation involving the derivatives of a function.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: calculus, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an equation containing differentials of a function

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: equation

Narrower terms: Maxwell's equations, partial differential equation, Schrodinger equation, Schrodinger wave equation, wave equation

History

Etymology

First appears c. 1704 in the publications of Charles Hayes. Calque of Latin aequatio differentialis, which was coined by Leibniz in 1676.

Across languages

Translations

35 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: ecuación diferencial — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Bulgarian: диференциално уравнение (diferencialno uravnenie) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Catalan: equació diferencial — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Chinese Mandarin: 微分方程 (wéifēn fāngchéng) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Chinese Mandarin: 微分方程式 (wéifēn fāngchéngshì) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Czech: diferenciální rovnice — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Danish: differentialligning — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Dutch: differentiaalvergelijking — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Esperanto: diferenciala ekvacio — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Finnish: differentiaaliyhtälö — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • French: équation différentielle — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Galician: ecuación diferencial — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • German: Differentialgleichung — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Hindi: अवकल समीकरण (avkal samīkraṇ) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Hungarian: differenciálegyenlet — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Italian: equazione differenziale — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Japanese: 微分方程式 (bibun hōteishiki) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Latin: aequātiō differentiālis — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Macedonian: диференција́лна ра́венка (diferencijálna rávenka) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Malay: persamaan terbitan — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Norwegian Bokmål: differensialligning — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Norwegian Bokmål: differensiallikning — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: differensiallikning — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Polish: równanie różniczkowe — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Portuguese: equação diferencial — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Romanian: ecuație diferențială — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Russian: дифференциа́льное уравне́ние (differenciálʹnoje uravnénije) — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Serbo-Croatian: diferencijalna jednadžba — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Serbo-Croatian: диференцијална једнаџба — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Spanish: ecuación diferencial — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Swedish: differentialekvation — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Tagalog: tingiring tumbasan — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Thai: สมการเชิงอนุพันธ์ — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Turkish: diferansiyel denklem — equation involving the derivatives of a function
  • Vietnamese: phương trình vi phân — equation involving the derivatives of a function