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.
“Their focus is on packing people in and they’re packing people in without an adequate system in place for providing necessary medical care and that is extremely dangerous,” Harris said.
From Los Angeles Times
Colonel Xerxes Trinidad told reporters the father-and-son duo's November trip to the Philippines would not have provided adequate time for significant training.
From Barron's
High upfront costs and the lack of adequate charging infrastructure in parts of the 27-nation union mean consumers have been slow to warm to EVs, producers say.
From Barron's
Wembanyama was an adequate shooter, making 35% of his triples last year, but observers couldn’t help but feel that it was a waste to station basketball’s tallest giant 25 feet away from the rim.
There have also been questions about whether adequate security was provided before the shooting took place.
From BBC
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.
