adequate
adjective
ad·e·quate
ˈa-di-kwət 
1
: sufficient for a specific need or requirement
adequate time
an amount of money adequate to supply their needs
also
: good enough : of a quality that is good or acceptable
a machine that does an adequate job
: of a quality that is acceptable but not better than acceptable
Her first performance was merely adequate.
2
: lawfully and reasonably sufficient
adequate grounds for a lawsuit
adequateness
noun
Examples of adequate in a Sentence
Then, during the spring and summer, allow adequate recovery by taking one or two days off the bike each week and scaling back the intensity of your rides one week out of every month.
—
Selene Yeager, Bicycling, January/February 2008
… they are adequate for almost any computing need.
—Michael Meyer, Newsweek, 26 Oct. 1998
… the government would have to bail out any bidder with less adequate resources …
—The Economist, 30 Aug.-5 Sept. 1986
The garden hasn't been getting adequate water.
The food was more than adequate for the six of us.
The school lunch should be adequate to meet the nutritional needs of growing children.
The machine does an adequate job.
The tent should provide adequate protection from the elements.
The quality of his work was perfectly adequate.
Your grades are adequate but I think you can do better.
The quality of his work was only adequate.
Selene Yeager, Bicycling, January/February 2008
… they are adequate for almost any computing need.
—Michael Meyer, Newsweek, 26 Oct. 1998
… the government would have to bail out any bidder with less adequate resources …
—The Economist, 30 Aug.-5 Sept. 1986
The garden hasn't been getting adequate water.
The food was more than adequate for the six of us.
The school lunch should be adequate to meet the nutritional needs of growing children.
The machine does an adequate job.
The tent should provide adequate protection from the elements.
The quality of his work was perfectly adequate.
Your grades are adequate but I think you can do better.
The quality of his work was only adequate.
Recent Examples on the Web
Its last game at the complex is scheduled for May 24, a date that did not allow enough time for adequate conversion of the field for major-league baseball.
—Dan Schlossberg, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
The company is targeting late 2025 for commercial deployment—an aggressive timeline that assumes hybrid architectures can deliver adequate performance without the extreme processing demands of pure ceramics.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2025
Three decades ago, that design was adequate, and hardware couldn’t support slower hashes well anyway.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2025
Flores also maintains that while Goodell has delegated arbitration oversight to a different person—former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey, who is now a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler—that delegation has failed to provide adequate justice.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 18 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for adequate
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Dan Schlossberg, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
The company is targeting late 2025 for commercial deployment—an aggressive timeline that assumes hybrid architectures can deliver adequate performance without the extreme processing demands of pure ceramics.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2025
Three decades ago, that design was adequate, and hardware couldn’t support slower hashes well anyway.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2025
Flores also maintains that while Goodell has delegated arbitration oversight to a different person—former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey, who is now a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler—that delegation has failed to provide adequate justice.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 18 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for adequate
Cite this Entry
“Adequate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adequate. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
adequate
adjective
ad·e·quate
ˈad-i-kwət
1
: suitable or enough for a requirement
food and water adequate for six people
2
: good enough
your grades are barely adequate
adequately
adverb
adequateness
noun
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