Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being as much as is needed; adequate; enough.
- adjective Archaic Competent; qualified.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Sufficing; equal to the end proposed; as much as is or may be necessary; adequate; enough.
- Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit; competent; capable.
- Having a competence; well-to-do.
- Self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
- Synonyms Ample, abundant, satisfactory, full.
- 1 and Competent, Enough, etc. See
adequate . - noun That which is sufficient; enough; a sufficiency.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent.
- adjective Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
- adjective Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
- adjective rare Self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Equal to the end proposed;
adequate to wants;enough ;ample ;competent ; as, - adjective Possessing
adequate talents oraccomplishments ; of competent power or ability;qualified ;fit . - adjective archaic Capable of meeting
obligations ;responsible . - adjective
self-sufficient ; self-satisfied;content . - determiner The smallest amount needed.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sufficient.
Examples
-
With respect to the frequency of the applications, I will say that while there are some cases where a bath twice a week is sufficient, and others where a bath every day is imperatively necessary, in far the greater majority of cases suitable for electro-balneological treatment, a bath every alternate day is _sufficient_, but a bath every day is
The Electric Bath George M. Schweig
-
CP chief negotiator Tom Langley, speaking at a joint Cosag Press conference on Monday, accused the Government and the ANC and their allies at talks of making a "mockery" of the term sufficient consensus.
-
All the more reason to resist such urges toward erecting trade barriers: The Saudi CEO maintained that there is the potential of four and a half trillion barrels in reserves, which he called sufficient to power the world -- at current levels of consumption -- for 140 years.
-
The judge ruled Florida's paperless machines provide what he called sufficient safe guards in the event of a recount.
-
"That is what I referred to as sufficient consensus."
-
In default of payment, he should be sold for a term sufficient to pay the fine.
Men of Maryland George Freeman 1914
-
The penalty for a longer continuance was a fine of $10 a week, and being unable to pay the fine he could be sold into slavery for a term sufficient to cover the fine.
Men of Maryland George Freeman 1914
-
The law of 1741 modified this by reducing the fine from ten to six pounds, and by providing that if the offender could not pay the fine he should be sold by the county court for a term sufficient to pay it. 1
-
Fourthly, To have the members of the second branch elected by those of the first from among those who should be nominated by the state legislatures; to hold their offices "for a term sufficient to insure their independency;" to be liberally paid for their services, and to be subject to restrictions similar to those of the first.
Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. Benson John Lossing 1852
-
He found, therefore, that, by allowing them what he called sufficient room and good provisions, with kind treatment, his speculations turned out much better in regard to the amount of dollars received; and that was all he cared for.
qroqqa commented on the word sufficient
I'd never seen the expression 'sufficient enough' before, and was surprised to find it seemed to have many Google hits. However, further research showed it was used well under 1% of the time, so I felt justified in editing it out as non-standard:
"sufficient enough to": 466 kGh
"sufficient to": 27,8 MGh
"enough to": 222 MGh
"sufficient enough for": 49,4 kGh
"sufficient for": 11,0 MGh
"enough for": 60,2 MGh
September 11, 2008
rolig commented on the word sufficient
"Sufficient enough" is redundant. I would avoid using it.
September 11, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word sufficient
Unless you are using sufficient in its original meaning*, underpinning. But nobody does.
*Source: Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana, by Francesco Bonomi
September 11, 2008
rolig commented on the word sufficient
good point, Pro.
September 11, 2008