sufficiently

UK/səˈfɪʃəntli/US/səˈfɪʃəntli/

adverbB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,206 of 15,258leans written

Sufficiently means enough for the purpose. Sufficiently clear, not sufficiently prepared, sufficiently large.

It is a formal alternative to enough and, unlike enough, it goes before the adjective rather than after it. In legal and technical writing it does real work, since sufficiently sets a threshold without having to name a number.

Definitions of sufficiently

1adverbsufficientlyEnough for the purpose.B2+
“Wait until the paint is sufficiently dry before you hang the pictures.”

sufficiently is a degree.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
sufficiēns
Old French
sufisanz
English
sufficient
English, today
sufficiently

From sufficient + -ly. sufficient comes from Old French sufisanz, soficient, from Latin sufficiēns, present participle of sufficiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

sufficiently in the wild

Hallways must be sufficiently wide to ensure buildings can be evacuated during a fire, and to allow people in wheelchairs to navigate them.
Hallway
Combinations, in contrast to the norm, are sufficiently forcing that one can calculate exactly how advantage will be achieved against any defense.
Combination (chess)
Then he bethought him that if only Froelich was sufficiently emphatic in his testimony a little uncertainty on his own part might be excused.
By Advice of Counsel· Arthur Cheney Train

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the sufisanz family

sufficient sufficiently

sufficiently — used about once every 2,415 pages · #7,206 · point at the bar for the others

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