Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use inadequate in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Inadequate means not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose. Example: “The subsequent investigation found the earlier inadequate maintenance to be inappropriate but noncausative.”

Examples of inadequate by meaning

adjectiveNot adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.

  • 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

More sentences with inadequate

  • The subsequent investigation found the earlier inadequate maintenance to be inappropriate but noncausative.From the entry noncausative
  • Due to being inadequate for the deductive method of reasoning, the argument from authority is considered a logical fallacy.From the entry authority
  • The defense argued that the plaintiff's discovery was inadequate.From the entry discovery
  • She had no reason for the conviction beyond the very inadequate one that she had seen him around London.From the entry beyond
  • Russia’s labor and capital resources are woefully inadequate to overcome the state’s needs and vulnerabilities, which are legion.From the entry legion
  • Too often, the union says, farmers feel the police response is inadequate and the sentencing too lenient.2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer. From the entry fingerprint
  • Inadequate, undisciplined, and nondevoted teachers are discredits to the schools they serve.2015, Daniel Iyeks, The Perils of the Young Blacks. From the entry discredit
  • In the face of his pictureperfect cowboy persona, Andi was aware of her own inadequate tough-guyness.2014, Cheryl Harper, A Minute on the Lips. From the entry tough-guyness
  • It is well known that these grammars are inadequate to represent natural language syntax.2014, Brian MacWhinney, William O'Grady, The Handbook of Language Emergence, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 393. From the entry regular language
  • Combined defense forces are inadequate to investigate and confirm all instances of these reactivations.2013 March 19, Greg Bear, String 18, in Halo: Silentium (Forerunner Saga; 3), New York: Tor, →ISBN, page 187. From the entry reactivation
  • There were so many ways to answer, yet each potential response seemed out of context, inadequate.2009, Dennis J. Roberts, Mergers & Acquisitions. From the entry conditional
  • Superpredators theoretically arise from dysfunctional homes, inadequate schools, and morally bankrupt communities.2005, Gus Martin, Juvenile justice: process and systems. From the entry superpredator
  • Yet there is inadequate understanding among Western Christians of their own native cultural context.2001, Paul Spickard, Kevin M. Cragg, Gordon William Carlson, A Global History of Christians: How Everyday Believers Experienced Their…. From the entry Western Christian
  • The derbendci, inadequate in number, could not cope with the new situation.1998, Tom Scott, The Peasantries of Europe, →ISBN, page 306. From the entry derbendci
  • Current problem solving systems are constrained in their applicability by inadequate world models.1983, James F. Allen, Johannes A. Koomen, “Planning using a temporal world model”, in Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint…. From the entry world model
  • Blackheart results from inadequate oxygen supply for respiration (asphyxiation) of internal tuber tissue.1981, W. J. Hooker, Compendium of Potato Diseases, →ISBN, page 10. From the entry blackheart
  • A modern explorer would have considered the contents of my basket rather inadequate for his work.1929 September, Bernard F. Meyer, “Among the Yau”, in Catholic Missions, volume 6, number 9, page 10. From the entry Chinese balance
  • The meager X-ray facts are woefully inadequate and there is nothing upon modern roentgen-cardiography.1924 November, “Physical Diagnosis by Richard C. Cabot, M.D., Professor of Medicine in Harvard University, Formerly Chief of the West…. From the entry oh well
  • The underwage is theft because it means insufficient food and clothing, unhealthy dwellings, inadequate leisure and recreation.1921, Free Synagogue Pulpit, volume 6, page 41. From the entry underwage
  • Shall we follow Frederic Harrison, making an inadequate divinity out of our impotence?1917, Upton Sinclair, “The Knowable”, in The Profits of Religion […] , book 7. From the entry positivist
  • Decapitation is an ancient practice in Asia with inadequate research.2020 August 23, Yawei Zhou, Shuang Lin, Rangping Qin, Hui-Yuan Yeh, Qun Zhang, “Winner takes all: reconstructing the decapitation of a…. From the entry Lu'an
  • If this was considered inadequate, the case went before the captain, who heard 'requestmen and defaulters' at a fixed time.2017, Brian Lavery, Churchill's Navy: The Ships, People and Organisation, 1939-1945. From the entry requestman
  • Idealized membranes, plates and bars are clearly inadequate and give way to the reality of tablas, gongs and zanzas.2013, Simon Emmerson, Living Electronic Music, page 20. From the entry tabla
  • Three major problems led to Citigroup’s downfall: bad investment policy; overexpansion, which overwhelmed Citigroup’s management; and an inadequate capital base.2009 January 21, “Questions for Mr. Geithner”, in New York Times. From the entry overexpansion
  • Facilities (eg minicoms, hearing loops, etc.) may be inadequate or staff may be unaware of how to use them.2009, George Castledine, Ann Close, Oxford Handbook of Adult Nursing, page 516. From the entry minicom
  • Choose a quality hitch and don't overburden an inadequate pickup truck with a big fifth wheel and you're almost in business.1997, Kim Baker, Sunny Baker, “Towing, Tow Vehicles, and Towed Vehicles”, in The RVer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know about Choosing…. From the entry fifth wheel
  • Such intervention revealed Brill's identification with authority and his inadequate understanding of how to change the condition of those without power.1979 December 22, Shannon Austin, Chris Garten, Mitzel, Mike Riegle, Tom Reeves, Michael Thompson, Charley Shively, Maya Silverthorne…. From the entry identification
  • Inadequate availability of termiticides, rodenticides and roachicides in the ghetto may turn our post bicentennial years into a nightmare.1975, Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Extension: Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture; House of…. From the entry roachicide
  • Trilby was the first to wake, her face barred with sunlight that slipped through the inadequate walls of the humpy.1961, Nene Gare, The Fringe Dwellers, Text Classics, published 2012, page 31. From the entry humpy
  • Part of the shed was recently blown down in a gale and has been removed, leaving rather inadequate accommodation.1951 June, “Notes and News: Eskdale Railway Rolling Stock”, in Railway Magazine, page 424. From the entry blow down
  • They are inadequate to show a genuine issue of material fact as to the existence of the original documents.1940 Banco De Espana v. Federal Reserve Bank, 114 F.2d 438, 447 (2d Cir. 1940). From the entry genuine issue of material fact
  • Almost half of all U.S. households are unable to host a rooftop solar system because they rent or have inadequate roof space.2022 April 19 (last accessed), “Planning a Home Solar Electric System”, in Energy.gov, U.S. Department of Energy. From the entry solar system
  • Or at the very least an inadequate wife and ungrateful mother–which is in stark contrast to the image I try to portray on Instagram.2016, Emily Giffin, First Comes Love: A Novel, New York City: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 40. From the entry hashtag
  • Causes of postarthroscopy septic arthritis include intraarticular steroid injections, prolonged operating time, inadequate equipment sterilization, airborne bacteria, skin lesions, and supracutaneous sutures.2013, M.Mike Malek, Knee Surgery: Complications, Pitfalls, and Salvage, Springer Publishing, page 10. From the entry supracutaneous
  • The wire fraud charge is related to the “receipt of electronic payment for inadequate and nonspecification work it knowingly performed on the contracts.”2008 June 21, Pam Belluck, “Big Dig Contractor Faces Charges in Tunnel Collapse”, in New York Times. From the entry nonspecification
  • Not much harder than memorizing famous dates and names in a history class, OOP poses inadequate mental challenges to scare away first-year students.2005 December 29, Joel Spolsky, “The Perils of JavaSchools”, in More Joel on Software: […], Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, published 2008…. From the entry quizzicle
  • Inadequate 'jointery', i.e. effective inter-services coordination, and not just between the four military services, remains an important shortcoming of the American effort.2002, Julian Lindley-French, Terms of Engagement: The Paradox of American Power and the Transatlantic Dilemma Post-11 September, Paris…. From the entry jointery

Meaning of inadequate

  1. adjective Not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.
  2. noun A person who is inadequate.

Full definition of inadequate

Questions about inadequate in a sentence

How do you use inadequate in a sentence?
Inadequate is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The subsequent investigation found the earlier inadequate maintenance to be inappropriate but noncausative.”
What is a short sentence with inadequate?
“The defense argued that the plaintiff's discovery was inadequate.”
What does inadequate mean?
Inadequate means not adequate; lacking in quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: inadequate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use inadequate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/inadequate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.