adequate
/ˈæd.ə.kwɪt/adjective, determiner
adequate is spelled A-D-E-Q-U-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is adequit: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 108 of all searches for the word. Adequate is an adjective meaning “Equal to or fulfilling some requirement”.
How many letters and syllables are in adequate?
| Letters | 8: A-D-E-Q-U-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, adequit, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell adequate?
Adequate is spelled A-D-E-Q-U-A-T-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 77 of the searches for adequate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is adequate?
Adequate appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce adequate?
- US /ˈæd.ə.kwɪt/
- US /ˈæ.də.kɪt/
- UK /ˈæd.ɪ.kwət/
As a verb (“To equalize; to make adequate”): /ˈæd.ɪˌkweɪt/.
Adequate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-adequate1.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-adequate2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of adequate
- more adequate comparative
- most adequate superlative
- adequates present, singular, he/she/it
- adequating participle, present
- adequated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does adequate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Equal to or fulfilling some requirement.
powers adequate to a great work
determiner
- 1
A sufficient amount of; enough.
We have adequate money for the journey.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo equalize; to make adequate.
- 2
obsoleteTo equal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Adequate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | adéquat |
| German | angemessen, adäquat, entsprechend |
| Portuguese | adequado , adequar |
| Spanish | adecuado , adecuar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.