US /ˈæd.ə.kwɪt/ UK /ˈæd.ɪ.kwət/
adj det verb Freq #12721

Meanings

  1. 1
    adj

    enough in amount or good enough for a particular purpose

    The room was small but adequate for one person.

  2. 2
    adj

    acceptable but not very good; only just good enough

    His written work was adequate but not impressive.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 adj · enough in amount or good... enoughsufficientsatisfactory
2 adj · acceptable but not very... passabletolerable

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Italic *aikʷos Latin aiquos Latin aequus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin aequō Latin adaequō Latin adaequātuslbor. English 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”). C…

View etymology graph ->

Topics

markdown

Send feedback

Optional — only if you'd like a reply.