[f. ADEQUATE a.: see -ACY.] The state or quality of being adequate or sufficient for any purpose; sufficiency.
1808. Wyvill, Intolerance. Their immediate effect was great: the adequacy of it becomes continually more visible.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 309. We do not, therefore, anticipate that the reader … will object to the adequacy of the cause proposed.
1870. Bowen, Logic, x. 336. The test of the adequacy of a Concept is its more or less complete enumeration of the essential qualities of the real thing.
