What is the difference between equity and equality? We didn't know. Bernie Sanders didn't know. Nobody knows. So we asked linguistics professor John McWhorter about this "wormy" word. WATCH:

@JohnHMcWhorter Equity refers to outcome - i.e. will bring others down to make things even Equality refers to opportunity - everyone has an equal chance to be successful, merit still exists. They cannot coexist. Most people talking about equity don’t realise that it limits freedom.

@JohnHMcWhorter Equity, when put into practice, ultimately is what Kurt Vonnegut describes in "Harrison Bergeron". Where nobody is allowed to excel, because if they do, they are no longer equal.

@JohnHMcWhorter This isn't hard. You are confused by propaganda. Equality is simple, everyone gets the same treatment. Equity requires someone(s) to determine what everyone deserves to get. It is the opposite of Equality.

@JohnHMcWhorter Equity is where everyone ends up in the same place regardless of ability. Equality is where everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential. The second is both achievable and desirable. The first is not.

@JohnHMcWhorter @JohnHMcWhorter gives the best explanation for the difference between equity and equality you've ever heard. Equity is like equality when you knock off the A-L. BAM BAM

@JohnHMcWhorter Equality is college admissions based on hard work and good grades - the most intelligent get in. Equity is college admission given to a black student in a rich family with a 2.8 GPA over an Asian or white student growing up in poverty with a 4.0 GPA. See the difference?

@JohnHMcWhorter Equity is socialism.

@JohnHMcWhorter

@JohnHMcWhorter Well said @JohnHMcWhorter equity is like giving everyone a PhD in 100 different fields, drivers license, pilot license, ship captain license, and a guarantee as CEO of a Fortune 500 company... At birth so everyone enjoys equity for the rest of the lives, basically Marxism

@JohnHMcWhorter Amen. Here is someone who appears to have worked hard to get where he is and has some of that good old common sense. I guess he didn't get there waiting for the government to give him a hand out.