suffice
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English suffisen, from Middle French souffire, from Latin sufficiō (“supply, be adequate”), from sub (“under”) + faciō (“do, make”). Cognate with French suffire.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
suffice (third-person singular simple present suffices, present participle sufficing, simple past and past participle sufficed)
- (intransitive) To be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be adequate; to be good enough.
- For this plum cake, two eggs should suffice.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- To recount almighty works, / What words or tongue of seraph can suffice?
- (transitive) To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.
- A joint of lamb sufficed even his enormous appetite.
- 1838, The Church of England quarterly review (page 203)
- Lord Brougham's salary would have sufficed more than ninety Prussian judges.
- To furnish; to supply adequately.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Usage notes[edit]
- Commonly used in the phrase suffice it to say.
- Mostly used in modal verb constructions, such as: Half a loaf per day will suffice. This is much more common than the direct form Half a loaf per day suffices.
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
be enough, sufficient, adequate
|
|
satisfy
|
furnish
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading[edit]
- “suffice” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “suffice” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- suffice at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams[edit]
Latin[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈsuf.fi.ke/, [ˈs̠ʊfːɪkɛ]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈsuf.fi.t͡ʃe/, [ˈsufːit͡ʃe]
Verb[edit]
suffice
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰeh₁-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aɪs
- Rhymes:English/aɪs/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin terms with Ecclesiastical IPA pronunciation
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms