sufficient

adjective

suf·​fi·​cient sə-ˈfi-shənt How to pronounce sufficient (audio)
1
a
: enough to meet the needs of a situation or a proposed end
sufficient provisions for a month
b
2
archaic : qualified, competent
sufficiently adverb
Choose the Right Synonym for sufficient

sufficient, enough, adequate, competent mean being what is necessary or desirable.

sufficient suggests a close meeting of a need.

sufficient savings

enough is less exact in suggestion than sufficient.

do you have enough food?

adequate may imply barely meeting a requirement.

the service was adequate

competent suggests measuring up to all requirements without question or being adequately adapted to an end.

had no competent notion of what was going on

Examples of sufficient in a Sentence

Considering that John Adams was notoriously insecure about his own place in history, he surely would have enjoyed his current renown. He and Abigail get pride of place in the family crypt, down a winding staircase in the church basement. On her plaque in the crypt, she is described as a "model of domestic worth," as though she were a particularly charming chifforobe, and not a woman who survived a troubled marriage with sufficient courage that both houses of Congress adjourned upon hearing of her death. Charles P. Pierce, Boston Globe Magazine, 26 July 2009
Because canines are, for the most part, unable to naturally manufacture sufficient vitamins to meet their daily requirements, a dog's routinely consumed meals, with some exceptions, must be augmented with them during the manufacturing process. Tom Ewing, Dog Watch, February 2009
And since this policy is usually accompanied by a pledge to provide sufficient scholarship funds to admitted applicants who cannot afford the full cost (around $45,000 in the Ivy League today), it is an expensive policy. Andrew Delbanco, New York Review of Books, 29 Mar. 2007
The result was a magnificent example of evidence overkill—the first set of prints alone was sufficient to match the gangbanger to a set in the national Automated Fingerprint Identification System database. Jessica Snyder Sachs, Popular Science, March 2004
A brisk walk is sufficient to raise your heart rate. There must be sufficient funds in your bank account to cover the check. Her explanation was not sufficient to satisfy the police.
Recent Examples on the Web Here's How Many Diapers Your Baby Really Needs Step 3: Assemble and fasten it together Sewing the diaper together would be the most sufficient option, but running around after kids at home doesn't make that the most feasible. Anna Halkidis, Parents, 9 Mar. 2024 Dunning also said there didn’t appear to be sufficient motivation, other than helping the city, to choose the more aggressive proposal over the more conservative approach the board ended up approving. David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2024 The long-term goal is to create a living, walking elephant-mammoth hybrid that would be visually indistinguishable from its extinct forerunner and — if released into its natural habitat in sufficient numbers — could potentially help restore the fragile Arctic tundra ecosystem. Katie Hunt, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024 Just do your best to log a sufficient amount of sleep as your body adjusts—ideally at least seven hours a night. Korin Miller, SELF, 8 Mar. 2024 Southern Arizona residents and local leaders called on Arizona to reject a state-level air quality permit for the Hermosa Mine in Santa Cruz County, saying a draft version of the permit is vague and lacks enforceability and sufficient monitoring. Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 8 Mar. 2024 But her campaign ultimately failed to gain sufficient traction, hampered in part by Trump's enduring popularity among GOP voters. TIME, 7 Mar. 2024 As of December 31, 2023, the Company had cash and investments of $46.4 million on hand, which should be sufficient capital to fund operations through an FDA decision on the VenoValve and the end of 2025. Charlotte Observer, 6 Mar. 2024 This is especially true when a company doesn’t have a sufficient amount of data or resources to train models internally. Expert Panel®, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sufficient.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English sufficiant, sufficient, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French suffisant, sufficient, in part from present participle of suffire "to suffice," in part borrowed from Latin sufficient-, sufficiens, from present participle of sufficere "to have enough strength or capacity, be adequate" — more at suffice

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of sufficient was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near sufficient

Cite this Entry

“Sufficient.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sufficient. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

sufficient

adjective
suf·​fi·​cient sə-ˈfish-ənt How to pronounce sufficient (audio)
: enough to achieve a goal or fill a need
sufficiently adverb

Legal Definition

sufficient

adjective
suf·​fi·​cient
: enough to meet the needs under the law of a situation or a proposed end
sufficiently adverb
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