ENGLISH
REFERENCE

adequate

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford US //ˈædəˌkweɪt// UK //ˈædɪkwət// ad·e·quate Academic Archaic General-service

adj. enough for what you need, even if it is not excellent. You use it to say that something is good enough to do the job.

adj. satisfactory or acceptable in quality or quantity for a particular purpose. Often implies a level of sufficiency that meets a minimum requirement without being exceptional.


SIMPLE

The food is adequate for a quick lunch.

CONTEXTUAL

The hotel provided an adequate breakfast, though the rooms were smaller than we expected from the photos.

COMPLEX

While the initial funding was adequate for the pilot phase, the project will require significant private investment to scale effectively across the entire region.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

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.

Usage

Often used with the preposition 'for' to indicate the purpose or 'to' followed by an infinitive.

Pitfall

The room was enough adequateThe room was adequateAdequate already means 'enough' or 'sufficient'; using 'enough' as a modifier is redundant.

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