Word family noun adequacy ≠ inadequacy adjective adequate ≠ inadequate adverb adequately ≠ inadequately
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinadequatein‧ad‧e‧quate /ɪnˈædəkwət/ ●●○ AWL adjective 1 ENOUGHnot good enough, big enough, skilled enough etc for a particular purpose OPP adequate inadequate resourcesinadequate for The parking facilities are inadequate for a busy shopping centre.totally/wholly/woefully/hopelessly etc inadequate The building’s electrical system was completely inadequate. The new air conditioning system proved inadequate.2 BAD ATsomeone who feels inadequate thinks other people are better, more skilful, more intelligent etc than they are The teacher made us feel inadequate and stupid if we made mistakes. —inadequately adverb Colleges have been inadequately funded for years.Examples from the Corpus
inadequate• The content of curricula is often inadequate.• These five areas of concern indicated that an improved and modified manual personnel records system would be inadequate.• Those scientists chose to modify the protective belt of the programme by proposing that the initial conditions were inadequate.• The training that nurses get is woefully inadequate.• He could make her feel so inadequate.• In their opinion, such deficiencies clearly led to inadequate administrative back-stopping and faulty interpersonal relations.• My light clothing was hopelessly inadequate for the cold Japanese winter.• The disease spread quickly because of poor living conditions and inadequate health care.• The plan was regarded in many quarters as inadequate, however.• Inadequate lighting made it difficult to continue the work after dinner.• The state pension is wholly inadequate -- no one can live on £50 a week.• In the course of things, some drivers already have quit, complaining of long hours, inadequate pay and poor organization.• An inadequate supply of vitamin A can lead to blindness.• The amount of fertilizer used was inadequate to ensure a good harvest.• Often the results are wrong, inadequate, untrustworthy, unreliable, and self-serving.inadequate for• The highways are inadequate for the number of cars that pass through here.feel inadequate• Are people made to feel inadequate?• If he does, that means he is not good enough or strong enough, and ought to feel inadequate.• Would you like to feel totally happy with yourself and able to cope with any situation without feeling inadequate?• She always made Jack feel inadequate - a soft southerner in this hard north-eastern territory.• Without the brown lump, I feel inadequate as a hostess, abbreviated in my domestic duties, incomplete.• I decide whether to feel inadequate or not.• As children we may have been made to feel inadequate, silly or useless because we were never praised. 