equate vs alter

equate and alter both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
equate	No	No	Yes	No
alter	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, alter is a hypernym of equate; that is, alter is a word with a broader meaning than equate:

Other hypernyms of equate include change, modify.

equate (verb)	alter (verb)
make equal, uniform, corresponding, or matching	remove the ovaries of
consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
be equivalent or parallel, in mathematics	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
	make an alteration to