Definition of SUFFICIENT

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 Put simply, those numbers just aren't sufficient to justify the huge expense of developing a direct replacement for the Mulsanne. — Mike Duff, Car and Driver, "Bentley Planning an Ultra-Luxury SUV," 17 Mar. 2020 The revelation that artists are tricky to live with hardly seems sufficient roughage for a whole book. — Kathryn Hughes, New York Times, "The Case for Staying Single," 10 Mar. 2020 In regard to the road maintenance expenditures, Snyder said the total being allocated by township board members in the preliminary anaylsis are not sufficient. — Jeff Forward, Houston Chronicle, "Woodlands board OKs interim tax rate for incorporation," 28 Feb. 2020 Neither base-bleed or rocket technologies are sufficient to account for the 1,000-mile range of the SLRC. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Leaked Images Show the Army’s Mind-Bending New Super Gun," 25 Feb. 2020 But excursions from Cassa Zenda in one of the resort's two black Land Rover Defenders are sufficient to plunge you into the surrounding natural landscape and everyday rural Guatemalan life. — Alex Postman, Condé Nast Traveler, "Francis Ford Coppola's Cassa Zenda: First In," 23 Jan. 2020 In normal times, Cuellar’s flush campaign fund of $3.24 million and full-throated backing from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats’ political arm would seem sufficient for his re-election. — Bill Lambrecht, ExpressNews.com, "Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar moves to stave off primary challenge from progressive Cisneros," 16 Dec. 2019 Tackling the emergency is necessary but not sufficient, countries need to make long-term investments, including through aid for poorer countries, so that the world is better prepared next time. — Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, "Bill Gates’s plan to tackle a possible pandemic only works if governments handle health care," 28 Feb. 2020 Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has suggested that figure is not sufficient, and Congress should allocate an additional $8.5 billion for fighting coronavirus. — Liz Alesse, ABC News, "Did Trump try to cut the CDC's budget as Democrats claim?: ANALYSIS," 28 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sufficient.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.