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.
"As well as impacting assessment of the quality of education, disrupted inspections have also impacted evaluation of child protection arrangements, increasing the risk that vulnerable pupils were not receiving adequate support."
From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026
"Everyone understands what women really want: social guarantees, an adequate income, the ability to afford housing, and, most importantly, tranquillity and security," she said.
From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026
Further analysis showed that their brown fat lacked proper nerve structure and an adequate network of blood vessels.
From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2026
That “high, mindless scream in the getaway car,” Ebert writes, “provides, for me, a very adequate vision of hell.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026
At the piano sat a young girl with glasses on, studying some sheet music in the not quite adequate light from a single overhead bulb.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
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.
