adequately

American  

[ad-i-kwit-lee] / ˈæd ɪ kwɪt li /

adverb

1. in a way that is sufficient, suitable, effective, or appropriate.

   The professor’s vague response failed to adequately answer our questions.

   The clinic needs to be appropriately staffed with permanently employed and adequately trained personnel.

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Other Word Forms

• preadequately adverb
• quasi-adequately adverb
• superadequately adverb

Etymology

Origin of adequately

adequate ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

Something has been done adequately when basic requirements are fulfilled. Passing your driver's test probably means you parallel parked adequately; if not, you may have knocked over some cones. The adverb adequately is a synonym for sufficiently, or suitably. If you've adequately fulfilled your course requirements, you're probably neither the best nor the worst student in the class. But you've definitely done well enough that you can pass — so doing something adequately is generally a positive thing, unless you're an overachiever, in which case you might not like that description at all!

Example Sentences

But in a statement this year, Mr. Rousseau admitted he is still “unable to express myself adequately in French.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

But in June, Judge Lewis Liman dismissed Baldoni's suit, saying his team had "not adequately alleged that Lively's threats were wrongful extortion rather than legally permissible hard bargaining or renegotiation of working conditions".

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

Very expensive data centers cannot adequately compensate for higher costs and reduced sales for, say, the restaurant industry.

From Barron's • Apr. 2, 2026

Higher energy costs, higher interest rates and shifting economic paradigms from the AI-investment cycle are creating both winners and losers that the credit markets struggle to discount adequately.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026

No one, he knew, had prepared for this, adequately or at all.

From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers

Related Words

• appropriately
• competently
• decently
• satisfactorily
• sufficiently