ad·e·quate

[ad-i-kwit]
adjective
1.
as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose; fully sufficient, suitable, or fit (often followed by to or for ): This car is adequate to our needs. adequate food for fifty people.
2.
barely sufficient or suitable: Being adequate is not good enough.
3.
Law. reasonably sufficient for starting legal action: adequate grounds.

Origin:
1610–20; < Latin adaequātus matched (past participle of adaequāre). See ad-, equal, -ate1

ad·e·quate·ly, adverb
ad·e·quate·ness, noun
pre·ad·e·quate, adjective
pre·ad·e·quate·ly, adverb
pre·ad·e·quate·ness, noun
qua·si-ad·e·quate, adjective
qua·si-ad·e·quate·ly, adverb
su·per·ad·e·quate, adjective
su·per·ad·e·quate·ly, adverb
su·per·ad·e·quate·ness, noun


1. satisfactory, competent, sufficient, enough; capable.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To adequate
00:10
Adequate is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
adequate (ˈædɪkwɪt) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
adj
able to fulfil a need or requirement without being abundant, outstanding, etc
 
[C17: from Latin adaequāre to equalize, from ad- to + aequusequal]
 
adequacy
 
n
 
'adequately
 
adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

adequate
1610s, from L. adæquatus "equalized," pp. of adæquare "to make equal to," from ad- "to" + æquare "make level," from æquus (see equal). The sense is of being "equal to what is required."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
The words “thank you” hardly feel adequate.
It has to come from somewhere, but there is no source of energy anywhere near
  the solar system that is adequate.
As microchips get crowded with more and more components, today's cooling
  methods will no longer be adequate.
But none of these explanations is adequate to the current situation.
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