inadequacy - Definition | Dictionary definition of inadequacy

Definition of inadequacy

lack of an adequate quantity or number

"the inadequacy of unemployment benefits"

Antonyms:: adequacy
the quality of being sufficient for the end in view; sufficiency; sufficiency
the quality of being sufficient for the end in view; show more antonyms...

Types:: show 10 types...; hide 10 types...; exiguity, leanness, meagerness, meagreness, poorness, scantiness, scantness
the quality of being meager; wateriness
meagerness or poorness connoted by a superfluity of water (in a literary style as well as in a food); abstemiousness
restricted to bare necessities; spareness, sparseness, sparsity, thinness
the property of being scanty or scattered; lacking denseness; deficit, shortage, shortfall
the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required; oxygen deficit
temporary oxygen shortage in cells resulting from strenuous exercise; scarceness, scarcity
a small and inadequate amount; dearth, paucity
an insufficient quantity or number; infrequency, rareness, rarity
noteworthy scarcity; slenderness
the quality of being slight or inadequate

Type of:: amount
the relative magnitude of something with reference to a criterion

a lack of competence

"juvenile offenses often reflect an inadequacy in the parents"

unsatisfactoriness by virtue of being inadequate

Antonyms:: adequacy
the quality of being able to meet a need satisfactorily: "he questioned the adequacy of the usual sentimental interpretation of the Golden Rule"; adequateness; show more antonyms...