These words are concerned with an adequate response to a foregoing requirement, need or expectation. Satisfy can be applied in all three cases, stressing in each the completeness with which something measures up to standards set in advance: satisfying the requirements for a Master’s Degree; unable to satisfy a craving for pickles; a film that could hardly satisfy the claims made for it during its publicity build-up. Fulfil functions in all three settings and may also suggest thoroughness of response; its special overtone implies a more-than-mediocre performance or one that in profound or that sets high standards: fulfilling the duties and obligations of his post with distinction; imaginative play projects that would fulfil the need for creative experimentation; high expectations that were ultimately fulfilled . In each of these cases, satisfy might suggest adequacy, but only fulfil would imply going beyond set boundaries.

Answer , fill and meet are more like satisfy than fulfil in suggesting adequacy, but no more. Answer suggests an exact matching of candidate and specifications: a young executive who would answer these requirements. If the specifications are demanding, of course, answering them might be a measure of excellence more than a mere proof of adequacy: a director who interviewed hundreds of ingénues before he found one who could answer to the special demands of the role. Fill applies best to the situation of eradicating a lack and may leave the question of performance entirely open: She was hired to fill a vacancy on the staff, but despite first-rate recommendations, it turned out that she didn’t satisfy our expectations. Meet , more than any of the foregoing, may suggest a minimal measuring up to pre-set standards, or the difficulty of attaining them: They barely met the deadline; drinking just enough water to meet the minimum weight restriction for paratroopers. It may also stress reluctance or suggest satisfaction of certain requirements: meeting his demands with an air of unwilling surrender; they refused to negotiate unless three preliminary conditions were met.

Ease and palliate apply only to the situation of responding to a lack, both stressing that it is partially filled but not wholly satisfied : Troops were flown in to ease the shortage of rescue workers. Palliate is even more negative than ease , suggesting the lack has been disguised or concealed but not altered in any basic way: laws that have palliated the disease of poverty without curing it.