Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Being as much as is needed.
- adj. Archaic Competent; qualified.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. That which is sufficient; enough; a sufficiency.
Wiktionary
- adj. Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as.
- adj. Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
- adj. archaic Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
- adj. self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
- The smallest amount needed.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent.
- adj. Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
- adj. Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
- adj. rare Self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant
Etymologies
- From Latin sufficiēns, present participle of sufficiō. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sufficiēns, sufficient-, present participle of sufficere, to suffice; see suffice. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sufficient’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence. 1920
A list of difficult words for L2-12 learners.
Faust, erection, metropolitan, splendor, shabby, conservatives, cherished, inconvenient, clung, acoustics, coupe, scramble and 261 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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worddom
put words in their place
theca, wisdom, kingdom, freedom, boredom, seldom, martyrdom, abdomen, doom, samhita, duma, dumka and 151 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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oneasterism's words
Words that I like, that I don't use often enough, that are new to me, that friends and family have taught me, and so on.
lugubrious, reticent, eschelon, missive, penchant, copious, conspicuous, tranquil, redolent, asinine, inane, dilatory and 625 more...
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Bram Stoker's Dracula
Words used in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
decadence, emancipation, nostalgia, abounded, modernity, revolution, famine, conservative, privy, vied, nascent, correspondence and 211 more...
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mysterbey's Words
omit, capacious, enclosure, dusty, ignominious, pensive, pliable, taint, complacency, wabi sabi, esperance, cerebellum and 62 more...
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vera's Words
veracious, set, rhythm, defenestrate, ninja, argyle, supercalifragilis..., tango, posse, idea, hobbit, sufficient and 80 more...
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Kalopsia
Beautiful, interesting words that may or may not mean beautiful, interesting things.
latrinalia, myrmidon, picaresque, psithurism, quincunx, quisquilious, saturnine, callipygian, susurrus, tantalolagnia, ululation, belonephobia and 55 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sufficient.
rolig good point, Pro. Sep 11, 2008
Prolagus Unless you are using sufficient in its original meaning*, underpinning. But nobody does.
*Source: Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana, by Francesco Bonomi Sep 11, 2008
rolig "Sufficient enough" is redundant. I would avoid using it. Sep 11, 2008
qroqqa 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 Sep 11, 2008