Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[wren]

In the dictionary, "adequate" have two meanings: "sufficient", and "barely sufficient".

a. The performance was NOT adequate.
b. The performance was ONLY adequate.
c. The performance was adequate.

What does adequate mean in these sentences? Is the performance satisfactory, barely satisfactory, or not even barely satisfactory?

Thanks.

[LucentShade]

a) not satisfactory at all

b) barely satisfactory

c) satisfactory

The problem with "adequate" is that people often use it sarcastically to insult something. Most of the time, if "adequate" has some adverb before it, like just, merely, only, barely, then it has a negative meaning, like "The play was only adequate"[=the play wasn't very good, or that it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be]

[wren]