Adequate vs Efficient - What's the difference?
adequate | efficient |
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.
Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
Using a particular proportion of available energy.
Causing effects; producing results.
* Wilson
As adjectives the difference between adequate and efficient
is that adequate is equal to some requirement; proportionate, or correspondent; fully sufficient; as, powers adequate to a great work; an adequate definition lawfully and physically sufficient while efficient is making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.As a verb adequate
is to equalize; to make adequate.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.
efficient
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic
- The efficient cause is the working cause.