inadequate
Syllables: in·ad·e·quate/ɪnˈædəkwɪt/
inadequate adjective: not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.
Adjective
inadequate (comparative more inadequate, superlative most inadequate)
- Not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.
- inadequate resources
- inadequate representation
Noun
inadequate (plural inadequates)
- A person who is inadequate.
- Thus, at some critical level of unemployment, “the unemployed” becomes a negative reference group of inadequates, the hardcore unemployed […]2012, Norman T. Feather, The Psychological Impact of Unemployment
inadequate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
inadequate in Hindi
- Not adequate
- अपर्याप्त aparyāpt
inadequate in Tamil
- பற்றாத, போதாத
inadequate in Urdu
- ناکافی
inadequate in Bengali
- অপর্যাপ্ত, কম, অপ্রতুল, অযোগ্য
More languagesFewer languages
- inadequate in Malayalam
- അപര്യാപ്തം, കുറവായ, പോരാത്ത, ദുർല്ലഭമായ
- inadequate in Kannada
- ಸಾಕಾಗದ, ತಕ್ಕುದಲ್ಲದ, ಸಾಲದ, ಸಾಕಷ್ಟಿಲ್ಲದ
- inadequate in Odia
- କମ୍ kam
- inadequate in Sanskrit
- अपर्याप्त aparyāpta
- inadequate in Tagalog
- disapat
- inadequate in Indonesian
- inadekuat
Examples of inadequate in a sentence
- I wondered with what inadequate words I could try to console her.1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12:
- By the 21st century, the clearly inadequate facilities needed to be replaced, so the area was rebuilt and modernised between 2009-13 as part of regeneration efforts focused upon the wider area.2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Wakefield Kirkgate”, in RAIL, number 948, page 28:
- “Russia is a terrorist country whose leader is an inadequate person”.2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 13, column 5:
Synonyms of inadequate
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of inadequate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more inadequate |
| superlative | most inadequate |
| alternative form (archaic) | inadæquate |
| Noun | |
| plural | inadequates |
Origin of inadequate
From in- + adequate.
Words formed from inadequate
Questions about inadequate
- What does inadequate mean?
- Inadequate means not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.
- What is inadequate in Hindi?
- Inadequate in Hindi is अपर्याप्त (aparyāpt). See Inadequate meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use inadequate in a sentence?
- I wondered with what inadequate words I could try to console her.
- What part of speech is inadequate?
- Inadequate can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce inadequate?
- Inadequate is pronounced /ɪnˈædəkwɪt/.
Words near inadequate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: inadequate (page history and authors); inadequate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inadequate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Inadequate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inadequate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); inadequate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); କମ୍ (Odia) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-inadequate.wav.
Cite this entry: “inadequate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/inadequate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
