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.
No cheers this week so I can adequately spotlight what might be my jeers of the year: a taxi scam in Paris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
“In practice, however, the facility received a large volume of patients, including patients with complex medical conditions, and the medical team was not adequately prepared to manage this population,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The platform also did not "adequately" stop the sale of counterfeit products because its mandatory "brand authorisation" system "proved ineffective and understaffed. Therefore, traders easily bypassed this", the EU found.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
The Commission said Meta failed to adequately assess the risks posed by how Facebook and Instagram were designed, as well as how long children spend on the platforms, particularly at night.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
If the research program had been adequately financed to permit full coverage, the destruction revealed would have been even more appalling.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
