How to Use inadequate in a Sentence

inadequate

adjective
  • I felt inadequate to the task.
  • These supplies are inadequate to meet our needs.
  • Her brother's success and popularity always made her feel inadequate.
  • We were given very inadequate information.
  • But at the moment that is inadequate salve for what has been lost.
    Bill Oram, oregonlive, 5 Aug. 2023
  • Sometimes, a claim is both false and based on an inadequate set of data.
    Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2024
  • First, the law is often highly inadequate, and can at times threaten, in the EFF’s words, to also be a chainsaw when only a scalpel will do.
    WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023
  • The narrative of child care in the U.S. is one of scarcity — an inadequate supply of affordable care for the nation’s youngest children.
    Jenny Gold, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2023
  • To be sure, the capacity at the border is inadequate to meet the demands of the current situation.
    Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024
  • The critics are already calling the code inadequate and see it as proof that the Justices will bend to political pressure.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 13 Nov. 2023
  • If the person doesn’t exercise enough to cause differential blood flow (or the dose of medicine is inadequate), the stress test may come out negative.
    Dr. Keith Roach, oregonlive, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Framing Ruscha as a history or landscape painter is inadequate to cover the full, thrilling scope of his creative life.
    Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2023
  • In the 1990s, a group of superintendents, districts and parents sued the state over inadequate funding.
    Becca Savransky, ProPublica, 6 Sep. 2023
  • On their new land, many Choctaw members were living in poverty, with inadequate housing and little access to food.
    Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The Niger River serves as an important transportation route in Mali, where roads are inadequate.
    Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 9 Sep. 2023
  • The reasons vary, from inadequate preparation in public high schools to the economic hurdles of paying for books or rent while in college.
    Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 May 2023
  • And the situation is only made more dire with an inadequate level of access.
    Paul Appleby, Forbes, 3 May 2023
  • Then, more instances of inadequate citation came to light.
    Harry Bruinius, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Jan. 2024
  • But the changes at the top won't solve some of Ukraine's biggest problems: a shortage of manpower that has helped sap morale and may require a mass mobilization, and the inadequate supply of Western weapons to take on Russia's might.
    Samya Kullab and Alex Babenko The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 10 Feb. 2024
  • The city’s water and power supplies were inadequate and unsafe, and in the late 1980s, the community was served by only one postman and two elevators.
    Matt Benoit, Discover Magazine, 4 Oct. 2023
  • The passageway was constructed without approval and permits from the DOB and had inadequate rudimentary shoring in place, the agency said.
    Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Durbin rejected that response as inadequate in light of the revelations about Thomas.
    Joseph Morton, Dallas News, 2 May 2023
  • Our existing transmission infrastructure that serves three-fourths of the state’s population is aging and inadequate to the task in front of us.
    Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Apr. 2023
  • In four of the force cases, supervisor reviews proved inadequate, the consultants found.
    oregonlive, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Stocks may be inadequate, especially in rural hospitals and small health care centers, because they are not distributed to places that see the most snakebites.
    Kamala Thiagarajan, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Nov. 2023
  • Many people face a long list of travails in the country, including meager salaries, an inadequate health care system, power cuts and gasoline shortages.
    Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2023
  • When the team's drop contains inadequate materials for the season, players are forced to borrow from other teams or purchase gear themselves.
    Rebecca Cohen, NBC News, 1 Dec. 2023
  • Weight loss contributes to inadequate muscle mass insofar as muscle is lost along with fat.
    Judith Graham, oregonlive, 19 July 2023
  • Last month, the FDA announced that the company’s testing was inadequate and said that Philips had agreed to conduct additional assessments.
    Margaret Fleming, ProPublica, 1 Nov. 2023
  • One question that had puzzled Hoffmann, the judge who oversaw the arbitration, was why Nigeria’s lawyers had mounted such an inadequate defense.
    Jesse Barron, New York Times, 9 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inadequate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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