adequacy
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of adequacy
First recorded in 1800–10; adequ(ate) + -acy
Explanation
Adequacy is the state of being sufficient for the purpose concerned. The meaning doesn't suggest abundance or excellence, or even more than what is absolutely necessary. Adequacy is simply the state of sufficiency. There is a current of equality running through the noun adequacy. The Latin word from which it is derived is adaequāre, "to make something equal to something else." The English word made its appearance in the early 1800s as a derivative of the adjective adequate. Adequacy means being equal to the requirements of the situation — no more, no less. Theater critic Walter Kerr once wrote this scathing review of an actor: "He has delusions of adequacy."
Vocabulary lists containing adequacy
Power Suffix: -acy
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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.
See Examples For:
Such research, the report tells us, “may also be relevant in challenges to permitting decisions or to the adequacy of environmental impact assessments” of projects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Our teeth offer another reminder that evolution prioritises adequacy over durability.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Fourth, adequacy: Yes, the plaintiffs and their lawyers can represent this class fairly.
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2025
The storm “highlighted a tipping point and demonstrated how close the region is to a resource adequacy crisis,” the Western Power Pool, a regionwide organization of utilities, wrote in its assessment of the event.
From Salon ● May 14, 2025
We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
That is odd, considering that America will continue to fund them at a cost of $4 billion a year; and given also the adequacies so painfully evident in Kunduz.
From Economist ● Oct. 8, 2015
Of course, changes in the adequacies of supplies would be taken account of on either interpretation.
From The Value of Money by Anderson, Benjamin M.
Wieland.—Wieland wrote German better than any one else, and had the genuine adequacies and inadequacies of the master.
From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Some discussed directly their pains, joys, adequacies, and inadequacies.
From Humanistic Nursing by Paterson, Josephine G.
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.
