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Definition of enoughnext
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enough

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adjective

enough

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noun

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective enough contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of enough are adequate, competent, and sufficient. While all these words mean "being what is necessary or desirable," enough is less exact in suggestion than sufficient.

do you have enough food?

When would adequate be a good substitute for enough?

Although the words adequate and enough have much in common, adequate may imply barely meeting a requirement.

the service was adequate

When is it sensible to use competent instead of enough?

The words competent and enough can be used in similar contexts, but 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

When is sufficient a more appropriate choice than enough?

The synonyms sufficient and enough are sometimes interchangeable, but sufficient suggests a close meeting of a need.

sufficient savings

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of enough
Adverb
Thirty-five points from two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander weren’t enough to give Oklahoma City another chance to hoist the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy for a second straight year. Andrew Greif, NBC news, 31 May 2026 More importantly, All-NBAer Jalen Williams was never able to sustain long enough to feel whole. Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 31 May 2026
Adjective
Are there now enough political junkies who want the pure uncut stuff? Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2026 Banks, subject to more established and rigorous scrutiny, warn the bill doesn’t do enough to protect consumers and also raises questions over where capital will be stored and and guaranteed if crypto exchanges like Coinbase are able to take deposits the way banks do. Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 1 June 2026
Noun
Seth Lugo struggles early The Royals did enough through nine innings to take starter Seth Lugo off the hook. Kansas City Star, 27 Apr. 2026 Chile’s 2025 wildfire season exemplifies how government institutions at all levels, as well as companies and expert groups, failed to understand and do enough to reduce the risks posed by increasingly intense wildfires. Stefano Pozzebon, CNN Money, 26 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for enough
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enough
Adverb
  • Considering that chips depreciate quickly in value before they can be sufficiently monetized, the wheels may fall off quickly if a loan defaults or a lender calls in debt.
    Rakesh Kumar, Fortune, 30 May 2026
  • Add mulch around the base to hold in moisture, and make sure the plants are sufficiently watered.
    Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 29 May 2026
Adverb
  • If these reports are accurate, this is a pretty humbling defeat of America’s goals in the war with Iran that started on February 28.
    David Frum, The Atlantic, 27 May 2026
  • Scroll alllll the way to the bottom for the answer (but there’s a pretty big hint above).
    Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 27 May 2026
Adverb
  • The story that Meija tells is also quite damning.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 3 June 2026
  • Although service is not quite polished, the happy-go-lucky Dutch-Caribbean staff are refreshingly devoid of attitude.
    Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
Adjective
  • The cycle persists because, at every link, those involved have had reasons that felt sufficient to them in the moment.
    Bruce Sibley, Time, 29 May 2026
  • One challenge the league ran into this year was that the mechanisms for investigating and enforcing tanking weren’t sufficient to the task and weren’t enough to deter tanking.
    John Hollinger, New York Times, 29 May 2026
Noun
  • Some have raised concerns about the cleanup’s sufficiency.
    Michelle de la Uz, New York Daily News, 13 May 2026
  • To issue an Amber Alert, law enforcement must determine that specific statutory conditions are met, including the age of the child, law enforcement’s belief in imminent danger of serious injury or death, and the sufficiency of existing information to assist in recovery.
    Itay Ravid, The Conversation, 13 Mar. 2026
Adverb
  • Eighty-two percent of executives report confidence that their existing policies adequately protect against unauthorized agent actions, which would be reassuring if it were connected to the actual state of controls.
    Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
  • Mendoza’s suit alleges that the complex’s natural gas provider, Atmos Energy, was negligent in failing to adequately detect gas leaks and maintain essential equipment on the property.
    Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 30 May 2026
Adverb
  • Thankfully, the largely entertaining affair marches to a peppier beat than the show, which can become bogged down despite its seasons being relatively short in terms of episodes.
    Mark Meszoros, Boston Herald, 28 May 2026
  • This simple setup makes particularly smart use of host Dakota Johnson, whose relatively flat affect isn’t a natural fit for live network sketch comedy but works perfectly for the seriousness of the fake horror heroine.
    Jesse Hassenger, Entertainment Weekly, 28 May 2026
Adverb
  • The book is a poetry collection structured in three acts with seven players, each assigned a color of the rainbow and an apparition’s name, each of whom needs an audience to fully exist.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 29 May 2026
  • But critics questioned if the arrangement fully addressed the core national security concerns that motivated the TikTok ban legislation in the first place because ByteDance was set to retain control of some of the US app’s operations.
    Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 29 May 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Enough.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enough. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.

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