English edit

Etymology edit

sufficient +‎ -ly

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /səˈfɪʃəntli/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: suf‧fi‧cient‧ly

Adverb edit

sufficiently (comparative more sufficiently, superlative most sufficiently)

  1. (manner) In a sufficient manner; enough.
    Once we had eaten and drunk sufficiently, we padded off to sleep.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. [] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
    • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 112:
      I prefer to think that birds have a sufficiently developed sense of humour to enjoy the spectacle of a human being hunched beneath a bush kissing the back of their hand.
  2. (degree) To a sufficient extent.
    We wanted to build a tepee, but we couldn't find sufficiently long sticks.
    • 1962 March, “The New Year Freeze-up on British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 159:
      Attempts by Waterloo signalmen to clear the points by power operation eventually exhausted point motor batteries, which are fed by trickle chargers, and a blown fuse accentuated the problem; thus, even when the points had been cleared of ice, no power was available to operate them until the batteries were sufficiently recharged.

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