Can you explain the meaning of the sentence? I would like to understand it grammartically as well. Is 'none' a plural word? How to understand 'the + less(comparative)'? What does 'equally mean' mean?
Let's break the sentence down first, then we can put it together again for meaning.
You've omitted a subject which I'm going to guess is 'They'.
It's in the past tense because of the 'were'.
'None the less' (or 'nonetheless', 'none-the-less' and 'nevertheless') means 'in spite of', 'despite' or 'however'.
It is often between two different thoughts.
Examples
It was raining. None the less, I went.
The book had terrible review none the less I wanted to read it.
Studying English was hard but, none the less, I carried on.
In the first example, the person went somewhere even though it was raining. Same in the other two sentences.
'Equally' - is an adverb of equal.
These people are equal (the same).
Equal here is an adjective to describe the people.
These people are equally tall.
Adding the adjective 'tall' means the equal from before changes to an adverb, equally.
Mean = nasty, horrible, does things to others in bad spirit.
So, let's put that back together.
They (subject)
were (past tense)
none the less (in spite of something that happened before)
equally (the same amount of...)
mean.
Let me write a short paragraph with some context for the sentence.
"In the year 2018 Tom and Tim were very mean boys. They were mean to everyone at school and their teachers. When it was Christmas the boys didn't get many presents. There parents said that Santa Claus has watched them and was disappointed with their behaviour.
In 2019 they were none the less equally mean. They were still mean to everyone at school and their teachers..."
My context for the 'none the less' was that they did not get many presents and, in spite of that, didn't change their behaviour.
Let's break the sentence down first, then we can put it together again for meaning.
You've omitted a subject which I'm going to guess is 'They'.
It's in the past tense because of the 'were'.
'None the less' (or 'nonetheless', 'none-the-less' and 'nevertheless') means 'in spite of', 'despite' or 'however'.
It is often between two different thoughts.
Examples
It was raining. None the less, I went.
The book had terrible review none the less I wanted to read it.
Studying English was hard but, none the less, I carried on.
In the first example, the person went somewhere even though it was raining. Same in the other two sentences.
'Equally' - is an adverb of equal.
These people are equal (the same).
Equal here is an adjective to describe the people.
These people are equally tall.
Adding the adjective 'tall' means the equal from before changes to an adverb, equally.
Mean = nasty, horrible, does things to others in bad spirit.
So, let's put that back together.
They (subject)
were (past tense)
none the less (in spite of something that happened before)
equally (the same amount of...)
mean.
Let me write a short paragraph with some context for the sentence.
"In the year 2018 Tom and Tim were very mean boys. They were mean to everyone at school and their teachers. When it was Christmas the boys didn't get many presents. There parents said that Santa Claus has watched them and was disappointed with their behaviour.
In 2019 they were none the less equally mean. They were still mean to everyone at school and their teachers..."
My context for the 'none the less' was that they did not get many presents and, in spite of that, didn't change their behaviour.