[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being adequate.
† 1. Equality; commensurability; exact correspondence in extent or scope. Obs.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 261. The Adequateness of these Parallelisms demonstrated by comparing the Seventeenth and Thirteenth Chapters.
2. Correspondence in fitness; sufficiency; suitableness.
1672. T. C[rane], Div. Provid., 7. The wonderful adequateness of a dispensation.
1728. Earbery, trans. Burnet’s State of Dead, I. 243. The adequateness of Punishments and Rewards.
1852. F. W. Robertson, Lect., 176. Only a few … can comprehend with something like adequateness the Cosmos, or order of the Universe.
