[Tex/LaTex] Make non-operator version of symbol \equiv

Question

In my thesis, I am using the \equiv symbol as a variable in several places. For this use, the operator spacing is actually unwanted. What is a good way of defining a second command giving the same symbol, but without the operator spacing?

My current best guess is to manually use \hspace, but that seems inelegant and seems to cause issues with alignment when using align environments.

Answer 1

You could define the \ordequiv command, as an ordinary math sign:

\documentclass{article}
\def\ordequiv{\mathord{\equiv}}
\begin{document}
$a\ordequiv b$

$a\equiv b$
\end{document}