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Adequate vs Insufficient - What's the difference?

adequate | insufficient |

As adjectives the difference between adequate and insufficient

is that adequate is while insufficient is not sufficient.

adequate

English

Alternative forms

* (archaic)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • 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
    • Ireland had no adequate champion.
  • * Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Empty House
    • 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

    * inadequate

    Verb

    (adequat)
  • (obsolete) To equalize; to make adequate.
    • (Fotherby)
  • (obsolete) To equal.
    • It [is] an impossibility for any creature to adequate God in his eternity. — Shelford.

    insufficient

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not sufficient.

    • Synonyms

    * unsufficient

    Derived terms

    * insufficiently