different between adequate vs alright

English

Alternative forms

• adæquate (obsolete)

Etymology

Latin adaequatus, past participle of adaequare (“to make equal to”); ad + aequare (“to make equal”), aequus (“equal”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (US) IPA^(key): /?æd.?.kw?t/, (proscribed) /?æ.d?.k?t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æd.?.kw?t/

Verb

• IPA^(key): /?æd.??kwe?t/

Adjective

adequate (comparative more adequate, superlative most adequate)

1. Equal to or fulfilling some requirement.

   Synonyms: acceptable, correspondent, proportionate, satisfactory, sufficient

   Antonym: inadequate

   • 1673, Hannah Woolley, The Gentlewomans Companion, London: Dorman Newman, “Of Habit, and the neatness and property thereof,” p. 61,^[1]

     Proportion therefore your Clothes to your bodies, and let them be proper for your persons. […] Agreeableness […] ought to be exact, and adequate both to age, person and condition, avoiding extremities on both sides, being neither too much out, nor in the fashions.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 31,^[2]

     Her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune, nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance […]

   • 1853, Thomas De Quincey, Autobiographic Sketches in Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers, Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, “Dublin,” p. 254,^[3]

     […] in those days, Ireland had no adequate champion; the Hoods and the Grattans were not up to the mark.

   • 1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House” in The Return of Sherlock Holmes,^[4]

     All day as I drove upon my round I turned over the case in my mind, and found no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate.

   • 2009, J. M. Coetzee, Summertime, New York: Viking, p. 212,^[5]

     John was a perfectly adequate academic. A perfectly adequate academic but not a notable teacher.

Related terms

• adequacy
• adequation
• adequative

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

adequate (third-person singular simple present adequates, present participle adequating, simple past and past participle adequated)

1. (obsolete) To equalize; to make adequate.
   • 1622, Martin Fotherby, Atheomastix; clearing foure truthes, against atheists and infidels, London, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 208,^[6]

     Let me giue yet one instance more, of a truly intellectuall obiect, exactly adequated and proportioned vnto the intellectuall appetite.

2. (obsolete) To equal.
   • 1635, Robert Shelford, Theologia Amantis Deum, or A Treatise of the Divine Attributes in Five Pious and Learned Discourses, Cambridge, p. 227,^[7]

     […] though it be an impossibilitie for any creature to adequate God in his eternitie, yet he hath ordained all his sonnes in Christ to partake of it by living with him eternally.

Translations

Anagrams

• æquated

Italian

Verb

adequate

1. second-person plural present indicative of adequare
2. second-person plural imperative of adequare

Participle

adequate

1. feminine plural of the past participle of adequare

English

Alternative forms

• all right
• aight (AAVE, UK)
• awright
• oright

Etymology

From all +? right. Compare Old English eallriht (“all-right, just, exactly”), equivalent to al- (“all”) +? right.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??l??a?t/, /???a?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Adjective

alright (not comparable)

1. (often proscribed) Alternative form of all right; satisfactory; okay; in acceptable order.

   Synonyms: acceptable, adequate, fine; see also Thesaurus:satisfactory

   • 1662 : Cantus, songs and fancies, to three, four, or five parts, both apt for voices and viols : with a brief introduction to musick, as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene by Thomas Davidson, iii. sig. B/1

     Where ever I go, both to and fro

     You have my heart alright.

   • 1922 : Ulysses by James Joyce, chapter 18

     …if I went by his advices every blessed hat I put on does that suit me yes take that thats alright the one like a wedding cake standing up miles off my head…

   • 1932 : "Goodbye, Christ" by Langston Hughes

     You did alright in your day, I reckon—

     But that day's gone now.

   • 1939 : Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, chapter 1.40

     Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascortastrumpapornanennykocksapastippatappatupperstrippuckputtanach, eh? You have it alright.

   • 2000 : House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, page 105

     "You're alright Johnny," she said in a way that actually made him feel alright. At least for a little while.

Interjection

alright

1. (informal) Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance; OK.
2. (Britain, informal) A generic greeting; hello; how are you.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hello

Related terms

• (greeting): alright me babber, alright me lover

Derived terms

• alrighty

Usage notes

• Some distinguish between alright and all right by using alright to mean "fine, good, okay" and all right to mean "all correct". Alternatively (or in addition to the previous), Alright may be used as an interjection akin to "OK", whilst all right is used in the sense of "unharmed, healthy".
• The contracted term is considered nonstandard by Garner's Modern American Usage and American Heritage Dictionary. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that although analogous forms exist in words such as already, altogether, and always, "the contracted form is strongly criticized in the vast majority of usage guides, but without cogent reasons". The Oxford Dictionaries also conclude that "alright remains nonstandard" and that it is "still regarded as being unacceptable in formal writing". Other dictionaries and style manuals also consider it incorrect or less correct than all right.

Descendants

• ? Afrikaans: oraait

References