adequately
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of adequately
Explanation
Something has been done adequately when basic requirements are fulfilled. Passing your driver's test probably means you parallel parked adequately; if not, you may have knocked over some cones. The adverb adequately is a synonym for sufficiently, or suitably. If you've adequately fulfilled your course requirements, you're probably neither the best nor the worst student in the class. But you've definitely done well enough that you can pass — so doing something adequately is generally a positive thing, unless you're an overachiever, in which case you might not like that description at all!
Vocabulary lists containing adequately
The Giver
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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Word Generation Weekly - Series 3
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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.
Now, however, one of the bigger questions facing investors is whether all the borrowings for the data-center and infrastructure buildout are going to get paid back adequately, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
That distinction could make it possible to develop treatments for patients who do not respond adequately to existing drugs.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
It is difficult to adequately convey the difference between experiencing 16 wakeful hours per day and white-knuckling your way through a brutal 20.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
These included Capra’s weak-kneed response to the anti-Communist crusade that roiled mid-20th-century Hollywood and his occasional failure to adequately credit his collaborators.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
We would never be able to explain it adequately.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
