sufficiency

/səˈfɪʃənsi/

Other forms: sufficiencies

A sufficiency is an adequate amount of something. Before a winter storm, you should probably make sure you have a sufficiency of food stored in your house.

The noun sufficiency means the quality of being enough, adequate, or sufficient. Due to financial constraints, your local school district may be willing to settle for educational sufficiency, but hopefully you will hold the district to a higher standard than offering merely an adequate education to students. The opposite of sufficiency is insufficiency, meaning an inadequate amount. Of the two, you will likely hear insufficiency more often than sufficiency in conversation.

Definitions of sufficiency

1. noun

   the quality of being sufficient for the end in view
   “he questioned the sufficiency of human intelligence”

   synonyms: adequacy

   antonyms:

   insufficiency

   lack of an adequate quantity or number

   types:

   ampleness

   the property of being more than sufficient; comfortable sufficiency

   type of:

   quality

   an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
2. noun

   an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose
   “there is more than a sufficiency of lawyers in this country”

   synonyms: enough

   types:

   fill

   a quantity sufficient to satisfy

   type of:

   relative quantity

   a quantity relative to some purpose
3. noun

   sufficient resources to provide comfort and meet obligations
   “her father questioned the young suitor's sufficiency”

   type of:

   wealth, wealthiness

   the state of being rich and affluent; having a plentiful supply of material goods and money