English Explanatory Dictionary

delusion of adequacy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The false belief that one is adequate; the belief that one is doing a competent job when one is actually incompetent.

Word forms

delusion of adequacy delusions of adequacy

Etymology

Coined by American writer and Broadway theater critic Walter Kerr in 1951 in a review in New York Herald Tribune review of a Broadway play called Buy Me Blue Ribbons (in reference to star Jay Robinson). An ironic variation of delusion of grandeur.

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