adequate

adjective

1 an adequate amount is enough for a particular purpose: The research cannot be completed without adequate funding.

(+ for): Are the parking facilities adequate for fifty cars?

2 good enough in quality for a particular purpose or activity: Without the proper resources the department cannot do an adequate job. | adequate to do sth: His explanation did not seem adequate to account for what had happened.

3 fairly good but not excellent: Her performance was adequate but lacked originality.

- adequately adverb: She wasn't adequately insured. - adequacy noun (U) USAGE NOTE: ADEQUATE WORD CHOICE: adequate, sufficient, enough, good enough,satisfactory, (will) do Adequate and sufficient are both more formal than enough, but all three can be used to talk about quantity: Will you have enough/sufficient/adequate money for the trip? However, adequate often sounds a little negative, suggesting that the amount is only just enough: The water supply here is adequate/sufficient. If you want to say that the quality of something is enough, you use good enough or satisfactory: "I'm afraid your work isn't good enough/satisfactory." Satisfactory is a more formal word. Adequate can be used to talk about both quality and quantity together, especially with uncountable nouns. For example, if you ask: Is the food adequate? you might be asking whether there is enough in amount or whether it is good enough. However, with a plural countable noun the quality meaning is more likely: adequate resources/training/support etc In spoken English people often use do (but not in progressive forms) to talk about something being enough in either of these ways: "Do you have enough money?" "It should do" (=it should be enough). | It's not much but it'll have to do.