inadequacy

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“
But isolation has destroyed his capacity for that, leaving him with nothing except this clumsy inadequacy which is, he suspects, what the superficial, empty charm was there to cover up.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The quality or condition of being inadequate.
  2. noun An instance of being inadequate; a failing or lack.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Shamed by her inadequacy, her voice broke on a groan. —  Teresa Medeiros - Once An Angel
  • The servant question had other phases than that of mere inadequacy, and there are countless small difficulties recorded; petty thefts, insolent speeches, and the whole familiar list which we are apt to consider the portion only of the nineteenth century. —  Anne Bradstreet and Her Time
  • Fanned by feelings of personal inadequacy, the irrational fears of the child matured into full-blown hatred in the grown man. —  The Many-Coloured Land -- Julian May
  • A main ego defense is against the feelings or state of inadequacy, which is turned inside out into grandiosity. —  Countercurrents.org
  • Another defense mechanism against the state of deficiency / inadequacy is the schizoid defense of isolation and withdrawal. —  Countercurrents.org
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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inadequacy:   inadequacies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

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/ɪnˈædəkwəsi/
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