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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
Mortgage rates may not fall far enough to make refinancing worthwhile. — Mike Winters, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2026 Sometimes the smartest move is to stop staring at the problem long enough to remember the bigger picture. — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 13 Oct. 2026
Adjective
Still, the company's move to cut terabytes of storage from paid Microsoft 365 plans is enough to overshadow that improvement for consumers. — Chris Hoffman, PC Magazine, 14 Oct. 2026 People who can’t get enough about the Daejon Love story are in luck. — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2026
Noun
Compounding fears was a terrifying warning from a former AI executive last week that AI could end civilization within a decade and the tech companies aren’t doing enough about it. — S.e. Cupp, New York Daily News, 16 Sep. 2026 In 2015, Des Moines Water Works tried to send its bill upstream, suing drainage districts in three northern counties near Palo Alto and accusing them of not doing enough to prevent the funneling of nitrate into the city. — Nick El Hajj, Des Moines Register, 15 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for enough
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enough
Adverb
  • That’s not to say this time isn’t different – that this technology is, finally, sufficiently advanced to truly spook the technical geniuses close to the problem.
    — Michael Serazio, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026
  • The team determined that the deep ice found at the South Pole was sufficiently clear and would allow for a sparse – and affordable – sensor array.
    — Doug Cowen, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2026
Adverb
  • Look, for the first time, Democrats are not just campaigning on each coast, Chris, and that's pretty good for us.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 11 Oct. 2026
  • The snake-haired figure gets a pretty bad rap, according to Wilson, who thinks people tend to overlook the more complicated parts of her mythology.
    — Maggie Clancy, Footwear News, 10 Oct. 2026
Adverb
  • The press release probably didn’t need to also say the company imbued it with distinctive character or charm; that’s quite obvious from the design.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Nothing, however, has lived on quite like his appreciation for the mundane.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • Expanding final assembly facilities must therefore be matched by reliable deliveries from suppliers and sufficient skilled labour across the wider production network.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Market analysts note that against a backdrop of already tight global crude supplies, this scale of curtailment is sufficient to move markets.
    — , CNBC, 9 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Eco effort Water sufficiency—including water recycling for irrigation in their treatment plant—in a notoriously dry part of the island is a notable part of the resort’s sustainability efforts.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Rex Frazier, a former deputy commissioner at the California Department of Insurance, said that in the situation that the insurers find themselves, the state regulator will be looking at a company’s capital sufficiency.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2026
Adverb
  • Bass and the council members blamed the CoC for not planning adequately for a large audience.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2026
  • Ud Doula reiterated that the RSC had failed to deliver adequately on its existing mandate and that the industry had already demonstrated its capacity to improve factory safety.
    — Mayu Saini, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
Adverb
  • On Dalporto’s watch, Guitar Center has leaned into relatively new, faster-growing areas like DJ equipment, keyboards, drums, and recording studio gear.
    — Phil Wahba, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026
  • The threat of tsunami has likely largely receded, says USGS seismologist Susan Hough, as the quake occurred on land and happened at a relatively shallow depth.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2026
Adverb
  • There is a lot of debate around in-person, hybrid and fully remote work.
    — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Omelchenko appreciates the study authors’ ability to translate math to real life but notes that fully evaluating the possibilities of new stitches by using torus diagrams would be impractically expensive to compute.
    — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 8 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Enough.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enough. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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