adequate
/ˈæd.ɪ.kwət/US/ˈæd.ə.kwɪt/
adequate adjective: equal to or fulfilling some requirement.
Adjective
adequate (comparative more adequate, superlative most adequate)
- Equal to or fulfilling some requirement.
- powers adequate to a great work
- an adequate definition
- Synonyms:
- acceptable, correspondent, proportionate, satisfactory, sufficient
- Antonyms:
- inadequate
Determiner
adequate
- A sufficient amount of; enough.
- We have adequate money for the journey.
Verb
IPA/ˈæd.ɪˌkweɪt/
adequate (third-person singular simple present adequates, present participle adequating, simple past and past participle adequated)
- To equalize; to make adequate.
- Let me giue yet one instance more, of a truly intellectuall obiect, exactly adequated and proportioned vnto the intellectuall appetite.1622, Martin Fotherby, Atheomastix; clearing foure truthes, against atheists and infidels, London, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 208
- To equal.
- […] though it be an impossibilitie for any creature to adequate God in his eternitie, yet he hath ordained all his sonnes in Christ to partake of it by living with him eternally.1635, Robert Shelford, “Theologia Amantis Deum, or A Treatise of the Divine Attributes”, in Five Pious and Learned Discourses, Cambridge, page 227
adequate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
adequate in Hindi
- equal to some requirement
- पर्याप्त paryāpt
adequate in Tamil
- போதுமான
adequate in Urdu
- کافی, موزوں
adequate in Malayalam
- മതിയായ, യോഗ്യമായ, കഷ്ടിച്ച്
More languagesFewer languages
- adequate in Kannada
- ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು, ತಕ್ಕ
- adequate in Sanskrit
- पर्याप्त paryāpta
- adequate in Arabic
- كَافٍ kāfin
- adequate in Thai
- สอดคล้อง sɔ̀ɔt-klɔ́ɔng
- adequate in Vietnamese
- đủ, đầy đủ
Examples of adequate in a sentence
- Her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune, nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance […]1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 31, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth...
- All day as I drove upon my round I turned over the case in my mind, and found no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate.1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes:
- A perfectly adequate academic but not a notable teacher.2009, J. M. Coetzee, Summertime, New York: Viking, page 212:
Synonyms of adequate
Antonyms
Forms of adequate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more adequate |
| superlative | most adequate |
| alternative form (archaic) | adæquate |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | adequates |
| present participle | adequating |
| past participle | adequated |
| past | adequated |
Origin of adequate
Learned borrowing from Latin adaequātus, perfect passive participle of adaequō (“to make equal to”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from ad (“to, towards, at”) + aequō (“to make equal, equalize”), from aequus (“equal”). Cognate with French adéquat. By surface analysis, ad- + equate.
Words formed from adequate
Phrases with adequate
Questions about adequate
- What does adequate mean?
- Adequate means equal to or fulfilling some requirement.
- What is adequate in Hindi?
- Adequate in Hindi is पर्याप्त (paryāpt). See Adequate meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use adequate in a sentence?
- Her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune, nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance […]
- What part of speech is adequate?
- Adequate can be an adjective, a determiner or a verb.
- How do you pronounce adequate?
- Adequate is pronounced /ˈæd.ə.kwɪt/ (US).
Words near adequate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: adequate (page history and authors); adequate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adequate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adequate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adequate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पर्याप्त (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “adequate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adequate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.