delusion of adequacy

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English

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Etymology

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An ironic variation of delusion of grandeur.

Noun

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delusion of adequacy (plural delusions of adequacy)

  1. (usually in the plural) The false belief that one is adequate; the belief that one is doing a competent job when one is actually incompetent.
    • 2005, Paul Lucas, Linda A. Lavid, Creatura, page 146:
      But compared to the jagged, snow-covered peaks in the distance, the mountains back east were mud hills with delusions of adequacy.
    • 2015, Ginny Gilder, chapter 1, in Course Correction: A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX:
      Whatever delusion of adequacy my admission to my father's alma mater had encouraged evaporated like morning dew, and I was left to panic before the stark, unblinking truth: I was an interloper.