inadequacy

Language: en

🇺🇸 /ˌɪˈnædɪkwəsiː/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    The state or quality of being inadequate; insufficiency.; A feeling of not being good enough; a sense of personal deficiency.; An instance or example of something that is inadequate; a shortcoming.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable / uncountable Plural: inadequacies

Collocations

sense of inadequacyfeelings of inadequacyinadequacy of the systemexpose the inadequacyaddress the inadequacy

Derivatives

inadequateinadequatelyadequacyadequateadequately

Synonyms

insufficiencydeficiencyshortcomingweaknessdeficitlack

Antonyms

adequacysufficiencycompetence

Commonly confused

incompetence
EN: 'Inadequacy' refers to something not being sufficient or enough; 'incompetence' refers to a lack of skill or ability to perform a task.
insufficiency
EN: 'Insufficiency' emphasizes a quantitative shortfall; 'inadequacy' can refer to both quantitative and qualitative shortcomings.

Spelling tips

EN: Remember the 'qu' is retained from 'inadequate', and the suffix is '-acy' (not '-acy' with an extra 'e'). The plural changes 'y' to 'ies': 'inadequacies'.

💬 Examples

  1. The inadequacy of the funding made it impossible to complete the project.

  2. She struggled with feelings of inadequacy throughout her career.

  3. The report highlighted several inadequacies in the current system.