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Inadequate vs Imperfect - What's the difference?

inadequate | imperfect |

As adjectives the difference between inadequate and imperfect

is that inadequate is while imperfect is not perfect.

As a noun imperfect is

something having a minor flaw.

inadequate

English

Alternative forms

* (archaic)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not adequate; unequal to the purpose; insufficient; deficient; as, inadequate resources, power, conceptions, representations, etc.
  • * 2013 June 18, , " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
  • In a convulsion that has caught many in Brazil and beyond by surprise, waves of protesters denounced their leaders for dedicating so many resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remain woefully inadequate .

    imperfect

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not perfect.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect .
  • * Milton
  • Nothing imperfect or deficient left / Of all that he created.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Then say not man's imperfect , Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.
  • (botany) unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.
  • (taxonomy) Known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.
  • (obsolete) Lacking some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • He stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.

    Synonyms

    * (not perfect) defective, fallible, faultful

    Antonyms

    * (not perfect) perfect, infallible, faultless * (unisexual) perfect

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something having a minor flaw
  • (grammar) A tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous.