adequate
Americanadjective
-
as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose; fully sufficient, suitable, or fit (often followed by to orfor ).
This car is adequate to our needs.
They’ll provide adequate food for fifty people.
- Synonyms:
- capable, enough, sufficient, competent, satisfactory
-
barely sufficient or suitable.
Being adequate is not good enough.
-
Law. reasonably sufficient for starting legal action.
adequate grounds.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- adequacy noun
- adequately adverb
- adequateness noun
- preadequate adjective
- preadequateness noun
- quasi-adequate adjective
- superadequate adjective
- superadequateness noun
Etymology
Origin of adequate
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin adaequātus “matched” (past participle of adaequāre ); ad-, equal, -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This powertrain, while producing adequate values on paper, delights not at all in person.
A federal judge this week ordered ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to provide “constitutionally adequate healthcare” to people detained in California’s newest and largest immigration detention center.
From Los Angeles Times
Without adequate child care options, working parents typically can’t give their all at work, and many times that leads to lower household incomes and diminished career opportunities, especially among mothers with young children.
From Barron's
The agency said in the letter that the application didn’t contain a trial that was “adequate and well-controlled.”
From Barron's
The two accidents, the company said, unfortunately illustrate that all driving, whether by humans alone or with technology, requires adequate time to perceive, classify, confirm and react to events.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
