as in inadequately
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Recent Examples of insufficiently
Governor Newsom has been insufficiently aggressive on AI regulation despite his wife’s advocacy for child safety protections, instead maintaining a cautious approach that reflects long-standing ties to the technology industry rather than working-class interests.
—
Los Angeles Times, 19 Feb. 2026
In the past year at UF, the GOP’s push to eliminate academic leaders seen as insufficiently hostile to left-leaning academics effectively derailed the hiring of a new president and multiple college dean searches.
—Garrett Shanley Herald, Miami Herald, 17 Feb. 2026
Last week, Paxton’s allies began running ads portraying Hunt as insufficiently conservative and too close to Democrats.
—Joseph Morton, Dallas Morning News, 11 Feb. 2026
But the campaign against Good is different—because The Homeland takes particular and perverse interest in women deemed insufficiently reverent of hearth and home.
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vanity Fair, 26 Jan. 2026
These rules would otherwise allow other countries to impose top-up taxes when profits are insufficiently taxed.
—Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
That usually happens when an actor appears overly controlled or insufficiently guided—either sealed tight or unhinged.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2026
The goal is to agree on a conservation and dam-operations deal to last 20 years and replace a 2007 set of guidelines that have proven insufficiently austere to preserve reservoir storage in the face of 25 years of regional aridification.
—Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 17 Jan. 2026
Officials in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris viewed early proposals as overly concessive to Moscow, insufficiently safeguarding Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity — particularly regarding Donbas, Crimea, and possible concessions beyond current lines of control.
—Daniel Ross Goodman, The Washington Examiner, 9 Jan. 2026
Los Angeles Times, 19 Feb. 2026
In the past year at UF, the GOP’s push to eliminate academic leaders seen as insufficiently hostile to left-leaning academics effectively derailed the hiring of a new president and multiple college dean searches.
—Garrett Shanley Herald, Miami Herald, 17 Feb. 2026
Last week, Paxton’s allies began running ads portraying Hunt as insufficiently conservative and too close to Democrats.
—Joseph Morton, Dallas Morning News, 11 Feb. 2026
But the campaign against Good is different—because The Homeland takes particular and perverse interest in women deemed insufficiently reverent of hearth and home.
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vanity Fair, 26 Jan. 2026
These rules would otherwise allow other countries to impose top-up taxes when profits are insufficiently taxed.
—Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
That usually happens when an actor appears overly controlled or insufficiently guided—either sealed tight or unhinged.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2026
The goal is to agree on a conservation and dam-operations deal to last 20 years and replace a 2007 set of guidelines that have proven insufficiently austere to preserve reservoir storage in the face of 25 years of regional aridification.
—Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 17 Jan. 2026
Officials in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris viewed early proposals as overly concessive to Moscow, insufficiently safeguarding Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity — particularly regarding Donbas, Crimea, and possible concessions beyond current lines of control.
—Daniel Ross Goodman, The Washington Examiner, 9 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for insufficiently
Adverb
-
Fueling your body inadequately will leave you feeling dissatisfied and undernourished.—
Jamie Johnson,
Verywell Health,
27 Feb. 2026
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Issues such as menopause and perimenopause, endometriosis and Alzheimer’s disease — conditions that exclusively or disproportionately affect women — remain inadequately studied.—
Michelle Kaufman,
Baltimore Sun,
9 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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That’s because there’s no way to resell prescription medications — once they’ve been received by customers, the company isn’t able to guarantee they haven’t been tampered with, opened, contaminated, or improperly stored.—
Rebecca Strong,
USA Today,
23 Feb. 2026
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Springsteen and Scott were convicted in the late 1990s and early 2000s, largely based on confessions that courts later ruled were improperly obtained.—
Tony Plohetski,
Austin American Statesman,
23 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Judge Nhan-Ai Simms, who testified to lawmakers in 2023 that Broce asked judges to violate state law by keeping some children with mental and behavioral problems inappropriately locked in juvenile detention centers, disagrees.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
27 Feb. 2026
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Nothing impacting them adjusts the stakes in a way that is inappropriately melancholic or melodramatic.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
24 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Insufficiently.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insufficiently. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.
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