Adequate vs Decent - What's the difference?
adequate | decent |
Equal to some requirement; proportionate, or correspondent; fully sufficient; as, powers adequate to a great work; an adequate definition lawfully and physically sufficient.
* De Quincey
* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Empty House
(obsolete) To equalize; to make adequate.
(obsolete) To equal.
(obsolete) Appropriate; suitable for the circumstances.
(of a person) Having a suitable conformity to basic moral standards; showing integrity, fairness, or other characteristics associated with moral uprightness.
Sufficiently clothed or dressed to be seen.
Fair; good enough; okay.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=Foreword Significant; substantial.
(obsolete) Comely; shapely; well-formed.
* A sable stole of cyprus lawn / Over thy decent shoulders drawn — Milton.
As adjectives the difference between adequate and decent
is that adequate is while decent is decent (sufficiently clothed).adequate
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)- Ireland had no adequate champion.
- All day, as I drove upon my round, I turned over the case in my mind and found no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate .
Antonyms
* inadequateVerb
(adequat)- (Fotherby)
- It [is] an impossibility for any creature to adequate God in his eternity. — Shelford.
decent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.}}
